On the January 19 episode of Phil McGraw's long-running daytime talk show
Dr. Phil
, conservative
Daily Wire
host Matt Walsh was sat in discussion with a non-binary couple, identified as Ethan and Addison, to discuss what the show called "the gender pronoun debate."
At one point in the episode, Walsh said those who believe in "left-wing gender ideology" to being "just like a 4-year-old, who can't even answer 'what is a girl,'" and reduces the concept of womanhood to a generalized biological condition.
When both Ethan and Addison -- neither of whom identify as female or as women -- were asked to define womanhood, Addison responded by saying, "I do not define what a woman is because I do not identify as a woman. Womanhood is an umbrella term that describes people who identify as a woman. Each person has their own relationship with their gender identity."
While the audience appreciated the answer, Walsh accused Addison of wanting to "appropriate womanhood, and turn it into, basically, a costume that can be worn." Walsh took to his Twitter account to brag about his performance during the debate on
Dr. Phil
, though the fact still remains that trans people's identities are not a debate.
Walsh, a noted right-wing blogger and media personality, also authored
Johnny the Walrus
, a children's book
PinkNews
called "hateful" and "transphobic,"
and
that
LGBTQNation
called "anti-transgender,"
describing it as intending "to mock transgender youth, comparing the experience of gender dysphoria to pretending to be a walrus." He says he wrote the book to "protect our kids from [that] brainwashing."
While McGraw gave Walsh a platform to spew his hate, he notably did not give space or time to those who could speak and report on the terrible, real-life, and often violent effects that kind of anti-trans rhetoric can have on trans folks.
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