Podcast host Joe Rogan repeatedly deadnamed and misgendered Caitlyn Jenner while claiming that she became transgender because she lived with the Kardashians, who he referred to as “crazy bitches.” Rogan has a history of anti-trans rhetoric on his influential podcast, The Joe Rogan Experience.
Deadnaming is the act of referring to a trans person by “the name they used before they transitioned” rather than their affirming name, and misgendering is when one incorrectly labels a person’s gender or pronouns. Both are forms of harassment that go against journalistic standards.
On his September 11 show, Rogan hosted Tim Kennedy, a retired mixed martial arts fighter and former Green Beret who has told people with post-traumatic stress disorder to “stop being a pussy.” During the segment, Rogan claimed that Jenner may have decided to transition because she lived with “crazy bitches,” the Kardashian family. Rogan repeatedly misgendered and deadnamed Jenner during the segment. (In accordance with the Trans Journalists Association style guide, Media Matters has replaced her deadname and incorrect pronouns in brackets in the transcript below.)
Later in the interview, Rogan and Kennedy pushed the false right-wing smear that the LGBTQ community embraces pedophiles. Rogan claimed that “people are trying to portray [pedophilia] as a sexual inclination, as a sexual proclivity”.
The two also lied that under a new California law, “A 20-year-old man can have a 10-year-old boyfriend. And as long as it’s within the 10-year boundary, you’re OK.” In fact, the law does not legalize peophilia but instead seeks to “end discrimination against LGBTQ people in sex crime convictions.”
Rogan is one of the most influential podcast hosts in the world, and he has frequently used his platform to demean trans people and spread misinformation about best practice, affirming health care for trans people. During a July 16 interview with Wall Street Journal writer Abigail Shrier, he claimed that being transgender is a “contagion” comparable to “cutting” and “even suicide pacts.”
In May, Rogan signed an exclusive licensing agreement worth more than $100 million with Spotify, where 11 years of his show as well as new episodes began streaming on September 1. Notably, numerous past episodes featuring right-wing guests were not uploaded to Spotify’s library, including interviews with far-right bigot Milo Yiannopoulos and conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.
In a press release, Spotify said that the show will “become exclusively available on the platform later this year” and that it “will mean that the platform’s more than 286 million active users will have access to one of culture’s leading voices.”
Both Spotify and YouTube, which currently hosts Rogan’s interviews alongside other streaming platforms, have bans on hateful content targeting trans people. YouTube has previously taken action against videos for anti-trans attacks.
