'Assault on women's sports': Joe Rogan doesn't hold back on allowing trans swimmers to race against women
On Thursday's (March 31) ‘Joe Rogan Experience’, the host, Joe Rogan, talked about transgender swimmer Lia Thomas and how it's ‘unfair’ for biological men like Thomas to compete against female opponents. Rogan said, "What it is now is not good. What it is now is an assault on women's sports, and the idea that anybody would think it's fair that someone who was number 462 as a man, 462 in the nation is number one as a woman a year later, and that's fair.”
According to the New York Times, Thomas had previously raced as a man and was ranked 462nd in the country before soaring to number one among female competitors just a year later. Guest Yannis Pappas joked during the podcast, "You don't think maybe it was her passion for swimming that got her to number one? Or changing diet?" Rogan responded, "Could be, maybe just becoming her true self.” Pappas added, "I can't think of any other factor it could be. I'm just passionate about swimming.” "Maybe, you’re probably right," Rogan said. He then went on to argue that having biological guys compete against female athletes is just not fair.
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Rogan added while slamming the NCAA, "But that might be the straw that breaks society's camel's back. Women are so frustrated, with or parents [sic]. If your daughter is competing, and they're competing against a trans woman, it's not fair. It's just not fair. No matter what anybody says. There’s this nonsense idea of like, well, there are outliers — there are outliers and then there are biological males, right? That's beyond outliers.”
Rogan went on to say that if a person is trans, they may be welcomed in other facets of society, but sports appear to be where people draw the line. He remarked, "Well, it's interesting because, in all other aspects of society, it's pretty much a given that, you know, a person can become trans and change their name and we're all pretty accepting of it. Where people have the most pushback is in sports and athletic competitions. That's where the real pushback is, right? Where people like 'Hey, fuck right. This is not fair.' This is clearly not fair, is a reason why we have a distinction between men's and women's sports."
Joe Rogan explains why letting trans athletes such as Lia Thomas compete Is “terrible for the trans movement”, because it makes people “cynical” and “less likely” to accept trans people and trans rights. pic.twitter.com/ETnWHPtm4b
— Mythinformed MKE (@MythinformedMKE) March 31, 2022
"And it's ironic because the people on that side usually always champion equality and nobody having an advantage and you know, the people who are maybe disenfranchised or less capable should have an equal opportunity and by throwing someone like Lia Thomas in there, you're kind of — that's the opposite of that," Pappas remarked.
The Lia Thomas case, according to Rogan, may be ‘terrible’ for the trans community. He said, "I think it's also probably terrible for the whole trans movement because it makes people more cynical about what the positive aspects of it are, and it makes people more, you know, less likely to accept it, because they think of, now they think of trans people and trans rights, and they connect it to this athletic thing. It's probably making people more distrustful or more upset and less accepting."
