Bill Maher Questions Legitimacy Of Trans People, Says They’re Only Transitioning Because It’s Trendy
Because when it comes to trans people and the yearly increase in those who now identify as trans, the most relevant opinion that everyone has been waiting for on this topic is the opinion from an old cis white man.
Here’s Bill Maher—who, over the last couple seasons of his show, appears to be perpetually stuck in a time warp, unable to grasp that it’s no longer 1997, and that culture/politics/people continue to evolve—spending nine minutes at the close of his show tonight questioning whether or not trans kids are actually trans, and suggesting that the rise in trans youth is only because it’s “trendy”:
Why Maher feels the need to question how other people (who have nothing to do with him) self-identify is a sad reflection of just how out of touch he’s become. It’s also all complete bullshit, of course, since Bill Maher doesn’t give a fuck about children, trans or not. He’s always hated kids and will never have them, so him suddenly acting as if what goes on in other family’s households is important to him is a complete sham. Yes, as he correctly pointed out, young kids do go through phases, but that’s between them and their parents to figure out.
If targeting a marginalized group by dismissing their existence for nine minutes is where we’re at in terms of quality comedy and opinion programming, HBO may as well be OAN on Friday nights. Maher questioning the legitimacy of a trans kid is a soft form of hate speech, and it’s in fact no different than all the Jesus freaks—the very freaks who Maher used to abhor—who questioned the legitimacy of gay kids like me who came out in the 90’s. Maher used to sometimes be funny because he cleverly ripped apart powerful hypocrites, but I guess maybe the ironic comedy of his act now is that he’s become exactly the type of person he used to call out—a disingenuous hack.
