His is a surprisingly popular point of view in a right-wing ecosystem that has worked to elevate perceived threats from equal participation of trans women in women’s sports as a path to winning over voters at odds with the GOP’s view on abortion.
As co-hosts of the Verdict podcast, Knowles and Cruz frequently used their airtime to discuss anti-LGBTQ ideas, policies, and conspiracy theories.
In just one episode, Cruz claimed that “the radical extreme left … want to sexualize little kids so they're in this gay bar,” while Knowles compared drag shows with taking children to a strip club. In another, Knowles pushed Cruz to use his power as an elected official to ban gender-affirming care.
The inclusion of trans athletes — real or imagined — in women’s sports has been a fixation of the right-wing media ecosystem even before University of Pennsylvania swimmer Lia Thomas became the first trans woman to win an NCAA title in 2022.
Coverage frequently suggests that cisgender women face safety risks as a result of pro-trans policies, and commentator Riley Gaines has apparently gone so far as to compensate an athlete for forfeiting a match against a transgender competitor, while pushing former President Donald Trump to make the issue a centerpiece of his 2024 campaign.
Right-wing media figures previously predicted that a backlash against trans athletes would fuel Republican victories in the 2022 midterms and beyond. Although voters have consistently rejected candidates who’ve chosen to embrace the issue, that hasn’t stopped pundits from arguing that 2024 will be different.
Many of the same figures fixated on the inclusion of trans women in women’s sports have not bothered to hide their contempt for the institutions and athletes they claim to defend: Knowles has mocked the WNBA and called for the U.S. women’s national soccer team to be disbanded. His co-worker Matt Walsh has complained about women even covering football games as reporters. Fox News host Jesse Watters has suggested that the only reason to watch women’s sports is if the athletes are getting hurt by men. Riley Gaines’ colleague Clay Travis derided Olympic swimmer Katie Ledecky as “pathetic” and “a coward” for not sharing his political views. And Gaines herself has labeled WNBA players inferior to male high school athletes.
Other right-wing media figures have acknowledged that the GOP’s panic over men in women’s sports is not based in facts or logic; in an interview promoting The Daily Wire’s critically panned basketball comedy Lady Ballers, founder Ben Shapiro admitted that “as it turns out, most ladies' leagues don't allow in actual men.”
Knowles is perhaps best known for a 2023 Conservative Political Action Conference speech in which he stated that “transgenderism must be eradicated from public life entirely.” The Daily Wire personality has made a number of similarly extreme statements, suggesting a ban on same-sex adoption, a ban on divorce, a national ban on the abortion pill, a ban on the Pride flag, and the criminalization of IVF.
Knowles has also praised Joe McCarthy’s House Un-American Activities Committee, defended fascist dictator Francisco Franco, and defended North Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem for killing her puppy. The Trump campaign has touted his support as part of a coalition called “Catholics for Trump.”
While the specter of trans inclusion has filled the airwaves in the weeks before the November 2024 elections, the voices of trans people have been noticeably absent this year. Just 8% of cable news coverage of anti-trans legislation featured a trans or gender-nonconforming guest in the first half of 2024.
