New York Times columnist and author David French drew scorn on social media over the weekend when he affirmed the transgender identity of a male staff writer at The Dispatch who identifies as a woman.
French congratulated Jessica Riedl, who was born Brian and has a wife and children, for joining as a contributing writer at The Dispatch, where French formerly served as a senior editor. The online magazine was founded by Jonah Goldberg, Stephen F. Hayes and Toby Stock in 2019 after The Weekly Standard went defunct.
“This is great news for The Dispatch. Nobody is better on fiscal policy than Jessica. Jessica and I recently had a great conversation about the grim realities of the federal budget on The Opinions podcast,” French tweeted Friday. He also affirmed Reidl’s feminine pronouns during an interview published in The New York Times in March.
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This is great news for The Dispatch. Nobody is better on fiscal policy than Jessica. Jessica and I recently had a great conversation about the grim realities of the federal budget on The Opinions podcast (link in next tweet) https://t.co/BcwnnY0sZV
— David French (@DavidAFrench) June 28, 2025
Riedl, who is also a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute focusing on economic policy, penned an essay in February claiming he had known he was transgender since age 4 and experienced intense, traumatic bullying in grade school.
The essay, which links to songs from the musical “Hamilton” and the 1990s rock band Blink-182 to emphasize his points, cites academic studies that he claims suggest it is possible for someone to have male anatomy while possessing the “predominantly female brain biology” he claims to have.
After drawing widespread attention in part because of French’s tweet, Riedl on Saturday issued an X post pushing back against claims he had abandoned his family and claimed he has been inundated with death threats from Christians.
“In the last 24 hours, 1000s so-called ‘Christians’ have called me a ‘demonic,’ ‘evil’ ‘monster’ who needs to be ‘brutally murdered’ so I can ‘burn in hell.’ They have also doxxed my young kids. Why? Because I happen to be LGBT. That’s all. These are simply terrible people,” Riedl wrote.
French’s tweet, apparently affirming Riedl’s worldview, was met with a torrent of criticism from users on X, including pastors, some of whom pointed out that French spoke out against transgender behavior as recently as 2018 regarding whistleblower Chelsea Manning, who was born Bradley.
”I won’t call Chelsea Manning ‘she’ for a simple reason. He’s a man. I will not use my words to endorse a falsehood. I simply won’t,” French wrote at the time in a column for National Review titled, “In the Transgender Debate, Conservatives Can’t Compromise on the Truth.”
What happened, David? https://t.co/gREQS6M1bMpic.twitter.com/3CZY3G9BbB
— Pathfinder (@rdsp0ster) June 28, 2025
A decade ago, French was also penning columns suggesting sexuality and gender identity involve a moral choice, raising doubts regarding the assertion that homosexuality and transgenderism are innate.
Some who took French to task for his Friday tweet suggested his hatred of President Donald Trump and his desire to remain in favor with the cultural elite have driven him to compromise on issues he once seemingly held as fundamental.
“This is one more key indicator that David French is not a conservative at all,” wrote Stephen Michael Feinstein, a pastor at Sovereign Way Christian Church in Hesperia, California. “And it’s definitely hard to reconcile his claim to being a Christian. This is basic creation order stuff.”
“His name is Brian. He is male,” The Federalist co-founder Sean Davis wrote of Riedl. “He is engaged in a vile and perverted sexual delusion that is destroying the lives of his wife and children.”
Davis suggested French has fallen into the same sin he accused Trump supporters of committing.
“And here we have Mr. Pharisee himself David French — the guy who implied voting for Trump imperiled the salvation of Christians and ‘compromised their witness’ — going out of his way to endorse and promote this insanity,” he added.
The Christian Post has reached out to French for comment. This article will be updated if a response is received.
“Trump Derangement Syndrome is real,” wrote Michael Clary, who serves as lead pastor at Christ the King Church in Cincinnati, Ohio. “David French used to be conservative, but his contempt for Trump has driven him into the arms of radical leftist ideologies.”
“Here he is, celebrating his publication’s hire of a dude in a dress as a staff writer,” he continued. “Hatred is a heckuva drug.”
“You don’t recover from abandoning first principles,” said Colin J. Smothers, who serves as senior pastor at First Baptist Church Maize in Wichita, Kansas.
David Balcombe, lead pastor of Living Way Church in Poway, California, suggested French nurses a desire to retain his place at the table in the upper echelons of the culture.
“Extremely sad to see what has happened to David French,” said Balcombe, who noted he recently drew insight into French’s alleged mentality by reading “How to Know a Person” by David Brooks, another New York Times columnist who claims to be a Christian.
“I recently read my first David Brooks book and I came away from it with 2 thoughts,” he said. “1) this guy lives in an incredible bubble of self-righteous, wealthy, privileged, upper-class folks. 2) I would very much enjoy a seat at a table like that.”
“I understand why French has compromised so much. That table is very alluring. But the price he has paid in terms of personal integrity cannot possibly be worth it,” he said.
“What a shame,” he added.
French endorsed former Vice President Kamala Harris during the 2024 presidential election, claiming her victory would help “save conservatism.” He accused Trump and his Evangelical supporters — whom he dubbed “MAGA Christians” — of infecting the American church with “viciousness and intolerance.”
Jon Brown is a reporter for The Christian Post. Send news tips to jon.brown@christianpost.com
