CNN guest accused of 'transphobia' for saying families don't like boys playing girls' sports
A CNN panel discussion about the 2024 presidential election results got heated Friday night as one guest faced allegations of "transphobia" for asserting that the Democratic Party's staunch support for allowing trans-identified males to compete in women's sports contributed to the election loss.
On "CNN News Night with Abby Phillip" Friday, CNN political commentator Shermichael Singleton stated, "I think there are a lot of families out there who don't believe boys should play girls' sports," referring to the phenomenon where trans-identified males are allowed compete on women's sports teams.
The terminology used by Singleton did not sit well with progressive rabbi and writer Jay Michaelson, author of the 2011 book God v. Gay: The Religious Case for Equaliy.
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"They're not boys," Michaelson insisted. "I'm not going to listen to transphobia at this table. I am not going to ... let you call a trans girl a boy."
“Everyday Americans don’t like when boys play girls sports”
— Buck Sexton (@BuckSexton) November 9, 2024
“That’s a slur! You can’t say that! They’re not boys!”
Yes, they are. They are boys. It’s a fact. Welcome to reality.
This why Democrats got crushed
pic.twitter.com/ckKNXNKQpL
While the two continued to talk over one another, Michaelson told Singleton, "When you use a word that's a slur, I'm going to interrupt." As she attempted to put an end to the crosstalk, host Abby Philip instructed Singleton to "talk about this in a way that is respectful," implicitly asking him not to refer to trans-identified males as boys.
Singleton concluded that he was being "targeted," which prompted Philip to push back and clarify, "I know that you are not intending to be transphobic." Singleton maintained that "he should know that."
As Singleton and Michaelson continued to spar, Singleton informed his fellow panelists that "regular people" disagreed with his analysis of the issue. Michaelson expressed strong disagreement.
"It's not regular people. There's no consensus that these are actually boys. This whole thing about trans girls is a canard," Michaelson said. "We're talking about a tiny, tiny sliver of the population."
"Regular people, with children, look at these things, and they say, 'You know what, this was a bit too far. I do not agree with this. I don't like this. I think Democrats have gone way too much to the left on social issues.' They're uncomfortable with it. A lot of people believe that, a lot of families believe that," Singleton countered.
As Singleton brought up how Republicans kept running ads criticizing Democrats' position on LGBT issues "over and over and over again because they saw the metrics suggesting that they were working," Michaelson contended that Republicans "lied in those ads over and over again."
He condemned Republicans for "using rhetoric like you just used saying this is boys playing girls' sports," dismissing the incidence of trans-identified athletes as "five people in the entire country."
"We're talking about trans girls … being allowed to play with people who are in their gender," Michaelson said. Michaelson cited his position that trans-identified males are girls as consistent with the views of the American Medical Association and the American Psychological Association.
A report released by the public opinion research firm Blueprint Friday, three days after former President and Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump defeated Vice President and Democratic nominee Kamala Harris in the 2024 election, found that many swing voters who rejected Harris cited her position on LGBT issues as one of the most important reasons for their decisions.
The survey of 3,262 national and swing state voters conducted on Wednesday and Thursday of last week asked respondents whether or not they agreed with a series of statements explaining why they should not support Harris.
A statement declaring that "Kamala Harris is focused more on cultural issues like transgender issues rather than helping the middle class" had one of the highest relative importance scores (+28) among swing voters who backed Trump, meaning that 78% of them agreed that Harris' position on LGBT issues factored into their vote against her.
Concerns about the participation of trans-identified male athletes in women's sports stem from real-world examples of athletic dominance in women's sports on the part of biologically male athletes.
The most prominent example of this is Lia (Will) Thomas, a trans-identified male athlete who became an All-American and NCAA Division I women's swimming national champion in 2022 after joining the University of Pennsylvania women's swim team following three years of competition on the men's swimming team.
Opponents of the participation of trans-identified male athletes in women's sports point to the biological differences between men and women as another reason behind their position.
USA Powerlifting has listed the factors that give males, on average, an advantage in athletics as "increased body and muscle mass, bone density, bone structure, and connective tissue."
Twenty-six states have passed legislation or implemented regulations requiring athletes to compete on teams that correspond with their biological sex as opposed to their stated gender identity: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Idaho, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, New Hampshire, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, West Virginia and Wyoming.
Trump has vowed to ask Congress to declare that Title IX, which requires equal opportunities for women and girls in education, prohibits trans-identified male athletes from competing in women's sports and highlighted his intention to "keep men out of women's sports" multiple times on the campaign trail.
Ryan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Post. He can be reached at: ryan.foley@christianpost.com
