“Jeopardy!” host Ken Jennings has ignited online controversy following a series of sarcastic remarks dismissing calls from transgender activists to boycott The New York Times’ word games. Jennings, in an exchange on the social media platform Bluesky, claimed he had received “express permission from the trans community” to continue his subscription to the Times’ games.
The controversy began when Jennings posted about a personal game he plays with his wife, attempting to find the "grossest-sounding word" in the New York Times’ Spelling Bee. In response, a user stated that playing NYT games is an "insult to trans people." Jennings replied sarcastically, "This may be true of others but I actually got express permission from the trans community to keep NYT games and recipes. I also have a news subscription, which is arguably worse, so I had to specifically send in a written request. Took 30 days but I got approved."
He further elaborated with mock quotes, "They were like ‘Trans people are not a monolith’ and ‘Like-minded allies may disagree on specific media boycotts’ and stuff like that. It was a huge load off my mind!"
The user who engaged with Jennings expressed disappointment, stating, "I was being sincere and serious, but thanks for turning it into a joke. that feels great." The user later noted Jennings made "no effort to apologize or acknowledge that he was an a–hole about trans people. No lessons learned it seems."
Some commenters on Bluesky criticized Jennings' response as "dismissive" and urged him to "read the f—ing room." Others questioned if he would apologize for his remarks.
Journalist Jesse Singal, co-host of the podcast “Blocked and Reported,” suggested that the outrage might be amplified by the specific platform. "Bluesky, like all hyperpartisan social-media platforms, has a tendency to concentrate users with extremely strong and rigid views in the same place, at which point certain ugly pressure-cooker dynamics set in," Singal told Fox News Digital. He added that such platforms can leave users engaged in "a desperate game of rhetorical oneupmanship."
Transgender activists have voiced concerns over The New York Times’ coverage of transgender issues for several years, arguing that continued engagement and financial support of the paper, including its games, enables what they describe as anti-trans reporting. In 2023, hundreds of contributors and thousands of subscribers signed an open letter to the Times condemning its coverage. The LGBTQ+ advocacy group GLAAD also sent a letter criticizing the paper's "irresponsible, biased coverage of transgender people."
Jennings has previously publicly supported transgender rights. In July 2025, he used Bluesky to criticize California Gov. Gavin Newsom's stance on transgender youth in sports, stating, "Any candidate cynically ‘triangulating’ on trans kids is a non-starter, and now is the time to say so."