Published January 25, 2025

Today marks four years to the day since my first day of work at The Athletic. I started on Monday, January 25, 2021.

Today I have the same entry-level title I had that first day: Staff Editor.

After four years on the job, five pay raises in the last three years, good performance reviews each year, almost 42 years in journalism and a decade-plus of intensive learning about editing trends and best practices for readers in the 21st century, I haven’t cracked the next level: Senior Editor.

My new lawyer friends wonder why that is. They have some thoughts, considering that I’m a transgender woman working for a company that’s been owned by The New York Times since early 2022.

Yes, The New York Times that I wrote about in a story I published 12 days ago.

I feel pretty senior

My entry-level status after four years is especially curious given the context. I could rattle off a list of names of people with more senior titles than mine who’ve been alive for fewer years than I’ve been in journalism. Or who were born only a few years before I began my first newspaper job.

The only two people on my seven-person team still with entry-level titles are me and someone who joined it many months after I did.

The remaining context will have to wait for another day, whether it’s my day in court or another day. But it’s a good question: Is it because I’m a trans woman?

I’m not the only person who’s trans or nonbinary and under the Times corporate umbrella who wonders why they haven’t advanced.

I know it’s not because I’m old and out of touch. I’m much more liberated from zombie rules and other 20th century stagnation that marks The Athletic’s editing philosophy than most of the people with more senior titles than mine.

Today’s anniversary finds me still on leave, still struggling to function. If you have read the related story linked above, you probably understand why.

I didn’t want to let today’s milestone pass without comment. It’s … significant.

Sending love.

♥

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