With all the competition in journalism, you’d think the NYT could find a journalist who hasn’t been living under a rock, who’d maybe read something about trans people, and who, um, kept up to date on terminology.
Not even “used to be a man” but “was a man.”
I think the punchline is supposed to be along the lines of “even this nice Catholic girl with ashes on her forehead is really one them sinful transsexuals.” Wow. What a hipster this guy is. Some people really need to get out more, maybe look around, ask questions, and take a minute to actually learn something instead of coaxing beautiful women into a hotel room with the sleazy promise of taking their photograph for the NYT.