How Jesse Singal Became the Symbol of Polarization on the Left

“Whether or not Singal is wrong in his conclusions does not matter. He dared to question the truisms, the sacred cows, and that brands him irredeemably transphobic.”

Journalist Jesse Singal has long been a polarizing figure on the Left. In 2018, he kicked the hornets’ nest with his now-notorious Atlantic piece “When Children Say They’re Transgender.” It is the sort of well-researched piece that is difficult to get worked up about—unless one has not read it, or, worse, has only read tweets about it. And, in that case, it is likely to be not just upsetting but also rage-inducing for anyone sympathetic to trans activism.

Recently, Singal has become more than another polarizing figure. His particular brand of deeply-researched journalism, which often pokes holes in facile leftist truisms, has granted him status as the quintessential example of the online Left’s polarization problem.

This became apparent at the 2023 Vidcon last month, when a panel of popular YouTubers discussed the topic “Uniting the Left.” The panel included Destiny, Vaush, and Emma Vigeland. Just a few minutes into the discussion, there was that uncomfortable sense of an elephant in the room. Before long, it became impossible to ignore. And, sure enough, sixteen minutes into the talk, when reflecting on “all the fighting that the left does,” Destiny says, “Not to call out any particular people, but with Jesse Singal, who writes a lot of articles about trans-related issues: rather than people being able to engage with any of these issues honestly with good arguments…it just instantly becomes an outing of ‘transphobic-ism’ or whatever you can call the other person. And then you just move on and forget about it.”

To which Vigeland quickly retorts, “But Singal is transphobic.”

Needless to say, Vigeland has never been able to muster a strong defense of this claim, not in the past and not during this Vidcon discussion. But she does not need to. The fact is, Singal has directed scrutiny upon leftist truisms regarding the trans movement. Whether or not Singal is wrong in his conclusions does not matter. He dared to question the truisms, the sacred cows, and that brands him irredeemably transphobic.