BRENDAN O'NEILL (EDITOR, SPIKED ONLINE): There's a kind of transgender extremism at the moment. Now, I'm fully in favor of trans rights. I think trans people should have the same rights as everybody else.
AINSLEY EARHARDT (CO-HOST): Of course.
O'NEILL: But there is this kind of trans extremism, which presumes that anyone who uses words like, “he” or “she” is being disrespectful to trans people or disrespectful to nonbinary people, or even possibly transphobic, which is a word that's invented to describe the use of this kind of language. So, I think a lot of politicians, a lot of people in in the public eye feel that they need to go along with this new form of speech policing and feel that it's the way to show that you are woke, and on message, and politically correct. So, they're going along with it. But, I think there are a lot of people out there who will be thinking, “What is this about? How on Earth can it be possible for a public figure to ban 'he' and 'she.'”
STEVE DOOCY (CO-HOST): Right. Two things. One, do you think this is going to spread? And, number two, what's the danger of it?
O'NEILL: I think it is going to spread. I think -- we've seen similar developments in the United Kingdom, for example, where feminists who are critical of transgender politics are hounded, and harassed, and their meetings are closed down simply because they think we should still have the right to talk about men and women. They argue that trans woman should have rights, but they're not necessarily real women. They make these kind of arguments, and they are increasingly controversial and unacceptable opinions to hold. So, I think there's a real -- there's an element of authoritarianism creeping into the trans movement, where they aren't simply arguing for their rights, but they're also trying to control how the rest of us speak and think, which I think is a step too far.
