On Friday’s Real Time on HBO, host Bill Maher blasted the left for being willing to give children puberty blockers, despite plenty of scientific evidence showing the harmful effects of such medications.
Maher had just finished mocking the ACLU for saying that LGBT individuals would be among those most affected by a Roe v. Wade reversal, “I'm happy for LGBT folks that we now live in an age where they can live their authentic lives openly, and we should always be mindful of respecting and protecting, but someone needs to say it: not everything's about you. And it's okay to ask questions about something that's very new and involves children.”
He also observed:
we're literally experimenting on children. Maybe that's why Sweden and Finland have stopped giving puberty blockers to kids, because we just don't know much about the long-term effects, although common sense should tell you that when you reverse the course of raging hormones, there's going to be problems; we do know it hinders the development of bone density, which is kind of important if you like having a skeleton. Fertility and the ability to have an orgasm seem also to be affected. This isn't just a lifestyle decision. It's medical. Weighing trade-offs is not bigotry.”
The context for Maher’s monologue was new polling that shows Americans identifying as LGBT is at all-time high, “yes, part of the rise in LGBT numbers is from people feeling free enough to tell it to a pollster, and that's all to the good, but some of it is it's trendy. ‘Penis equals man? Okay, boomer.’”
After quoting transgender Dr. Erica Anderson saying the movement has gone too far and has children identifying as transgender out of societal pressures, Maher asked, “If you attend a small dinner party of typically very liberal, upper income Angelenos, it is not uncommon to hear parents who each have a trans kid having a conversation about that. What are the odds of that happening in Youngstown, Ohio? If this spike in trans children is all natural, why is it regional?”
Answering his own question, Maher declared “this is not a serious, science-based discussion, it's a blow being struck in the culture wars using children as cannon fodder.”
Maher also admitted to being confused by “parents who won't let their 9-year-old walk to the corner without a helmet, an EpiPen, and a GPS tracker, and God forbid their lips touch dairy, but hormone blockers and genital surgery? Fine.”
Approaching the end of his monologue, Maher took aim at gender theory itself, “Maybe the girl who hates ‘girly stuff’ just needs to learn that being female doesn't mean you have to act like a Kardashian. Maybe childhood makes you sad sometimes and there are other solutions besides ‘Hand me the dick saw.’”
Maher ended by being thankful that nobody took his childhood phases seriously, “I wanted to be a pirate, thank—thank-- God nobody took me seriously and scheduled me for eye removal and peg leg surgery.”
For the good of the children, the Party of Science should listen to one of their own.
Here is a transcript for the May 20 show:
HBO Real Time With Bill Maher
5/20/2022
10:49 PM ET
BILL MAHER: In the wake of America about to lose abortion rights, the ACLU recently tweeted a list of those who would be "Disproportionately harmed" by this. You would think "women" might top that list. No -- wasn't even on the list. Second on the list was LGBT. Really?
Abortion rights affects gay and trans people more than, you know, "Breeders"? I'm happy for LGBT folks that we now live in an age where they can live their authentic lives openly, and we should always be mindful of respecting and protecting, but someone needs to say it: not everything's about you.
And it's okay to ask questions about something that's very new and involves children. The answer can't always be that anyone from a “marginalized" community is automatically right, trump card, mic drop, end of discussion.
Because we're literally experimenting on children. Maybe that's why Sweden and Finland have stopped giving puberty blockers to kids, because we just don't know much about the long-term effects, although common sense should tell you that when you reverse the course of raging hormones, there's going to be problems; we do know it hinders the development of bone density, which is kind of important if you like having a skeleton.
Fertility and the ability to have an orgasm seem also to be affected. This isn't just a lifestyle decision. It's medical. Weighing trade-offs is not bigotry. Yet when a book questioning the sudden uptick in transitioning children was released, a trans lawyer with the ACLU, named Chase Strangio tweeted "Stopping the circulation of this book and these ideas is 100% a hill I will die on." How very civil liberties of him. Chase, by the way, has just been named one of the grand marshals of this year's New York City Pride March, along with three other trans people and a lesbian. Huh, what's missing here? Oh right, a gay man. That's where we are: Gay men aren't hip enough for the gay pride parade.
Compared to trans, gay is practically cis, and cis is practically Mormon. And this is a phenomenon we need to take into account when we look at this issue: yes, part of the rise in LGBT numbers is from people feeling free enough to tell it to a pollster, and that's all to the good, but some of it is it's trendy. "Penis equals man? Okay, boomer."
Remember, the prime directive of every teen is, anything to shock and challenge the squares who brought you up; it's why nobody gets a nose ring at 56.
And if you haven't noticed that with kids, doing something "For the likes" is more important than their own genitals, you haven't been paying attention. Dr. Erica Anderson is a prominent 71- year-old clinical psychologist who is herself transgender and who now says "I think it's gone too far. " The L.A. Times summarizes she's “come to believe that some children identifying as trans are falling under the influence of their peers and social media."
If you attend a small dinner party of typically very liberal, upper income Angelenos, it is not uncommon to hear parents who each have a trans kid having a conversation about that. What are the odds of that happening in Youngstown, Ohio?
If this spike in trans children is all natural, why is it regional? Either Ohio is shaming them or California is creating them. It's like that day we suddenly needed bottled water all the time. If we can't admit that in certain enclaves there is some level of trendiness to the idea of being anything other than straight, then this is not a serious, science-based discussion, it's a blow being struck in the culture wars using children as cannon fodder.
I don't understand parents who won't let their 9-year-old walk to the corner without a helmet, an EpiPen, and a GPS tracker, and God forbid their lips touch dairy, but hormone blockers and genital surgery? Fine. Talk about a nut allergy.
I guess penises are gross now, but one might come in handy later on. And if you're a man who wants to experience life without a pair of balls, you don't have to get surgery -- you can get married. I kid, we joke.
And never forget children are impressionable and very, very stupid. Kids don't know why mom drinks every day, or why dad has two cell phones. Maybe the boy who thinks he's a girl is just gay. Or whatever Frasier was.
Maybe the girl who hates "girly stuff" just needs to learn that being female doesn't mean you have to act like a Kardashian. Maybe childhood makes you sad sometimes and there are other solutions besides "Hand me the dick saw."
And look, I'm sure the vast majority of parents do not take this lightly, and that it's very hard to know when something is real or just a phase. And I understand being trans is different, it's innate -- but kids do also have phases. They're kids, it's all phases. The dinosaur phase, the Hello Kitty phase. One day they want to be an astronaut, the next day you can't get them to leave their room.
Gender fluid? Kids are fluid about everything. If kids knew what they wanted to be at age eight, the world would be filled with cowboys and princesses.
I wanted to be a pirate, thank—thank-- God nobody took me seriously and scheduled me for eye removal and peg leg surgery. Okay, that's our show.
