John Oliver and Jon Stewart Trans-Centric Episodes

Too little too late?

Fall is in the air and along with HBO and other platforms launching their flagship dramas, trans rights are finally being talked about on two prominent late night talk shows. Jon Stewart and John Oliver have both released episodes of their respective late night shows with gender-affirming care for trans youth as their main story. With anti-trans legislation continuing to catapult its way into this country and states having already passed bans on trans healthcare over a year ago, are these episodes really confronting opposing views and reducing transphobia? Or are they simply reaffirming the values that the majority of their audience already holds?

The Problem with Jon Stewart

Arkansas was the first state in the U.S. to ban gender-affirming care (GAC) for transgender youth in 2021, and currently a trial is underway by families of trans youth and two medical professionals to strike down the law. Arkansas is not the only state to make bans on gender-affirming care, however, other states have issued their own set of proposed legislation to also limit GAC for not only trans youth, but also trans adults as well. In The Problem with Jon Stewart episode “The War Over Gender” he takes aim at these bills with the help of ACLU attorney Chase Strangio, but his main focus is interviewing the Attorney General of Arkansas, Leslie Rutledge.

Stewart does a brilliant job holding his own against AG Rutledge by bringing up the false claims that are made regarding trans youth that “desist their transgender identity.” Even after five years of social transitioning, 94% of youth still identify as being transgender according to the American Academy of Pediatrics. This study even points out that there is not enough data on the rate at which transgender youth “desist” or retransition to their previous identity. This is immediately contradictory to the 2% that Rutledge blurts out (seemingly with no sources what-so-ever), and Stewart shuts her down by pointing out virtually all studies disprove that imaginary statistic.

For most of the interview Stewart continues to point out the hypocrisies in Rutledge’s argument. A glaring example is the idea that children and their parents would benefit from a second opinion. This is of course absurd on its face because she was part of making it illegal to even receive the “first opinion” which is the universal standard of care (agreed upon by major American medical organizations.) Parents and children are then forced to seek a second opinion out of necessity.

All that’s needed is to look at Rutledge’s Save Adolescents from Experimentation Act (SAFE from what exactly?) to see how hypocritical and destructive her prescriptive perspective can be:

What Rutledge means is that she wants children to have another opinion which she thinks is the correct one. An opinion that she wants to forcibly put onto others despite her not being a medical professional, a parent of a trans child, or trans herself. An opinion that she holds due to the misinformation that she’s been wading and wallowing in regarding transgender youth “desisting” transition. Much of this misinformation was provided by a medical panel during the hearings for the SAFE bill, consisting of dubious “medical professionals” who had a hateful bias towards transgender people, and had no understanding of what gender dysphoria even is.

The authenticity of Rutledge’s “medical experts” could have been cut down easily had Stewart simply brought up their credentials. For instance, Dr Patrick Lappert’s medical prowess is based upon him running a Botox clinic in a strip mall and does not currently have a medical license. Also Dr Paul Hruz, another doctor who has never diagnosed a single patient with gender dysphoria, also claimed that “Some [transgender] children are born in this world to suffer and die”. Like what the actual fuck?

Stewart could have also emphasized what these laws would do to actual medical professionals, which in Alabama’s case is sentencing them up to 10 years in prison.

Finally I wanted to address Stewart’s apology from the beginning of the episode. Stewart apologizes for past comments he made about transgender people back when he hosted The Daily Show, saying that he had made “shitty reductive jokes”. Despite this apology for making crude jokes at trans people’s expense, Stewart doesn’t bring up his defense of Dave Chapelle a year earlier regarding Chappelle’s Netflix special The Closer.

The 2021 comedy special (which I wrote extensively about here) includes jokes about trans women using urinals, not having the ability to give birth, jabs at their appearances, and most notably includes Chapelle saying he was “Team TERF” (Trans Exclusionary Radical Feminist). All to which Stewart replied,

“He’s warm and wise and all those things. If this spurs a conversation where people get more on the same page in terms of understanding that’d be great but I know his intention is never hurtful like, he’s just not that kind of person. And if it is hurtful, it’s certainly unintentional, he’s a really good man.”

Now, I’m not saying that I think Stewart should have specifically called out Chappelle for his statements, but I do want to understand how Stewart (who showed he can be incredibly compassionate toward trans youth), could defend someone who clearly lacks any empathy at all when it comes to the struggles that the trans community faces. Stewart insists that if it was his child in a situation like the one AG Rutledge is forcing children into, that he would “swim across rivers” and “climb mountains” to save his child’s life. I just wanted to know that he would also do the same if transphobic comedians were continuously punching down on someone he loved.

Last Week Tonight With John Oliver

Prior to John Oliver’s October 16th episode, trans issues have been spoken about mostly in passing. Both Oliver’s and Stewart’s episodes main segments were about gender affirming care, but Oliver recently even pointed out the heinous Alabama bill in his May 15th episode. Oliver had a lot to say about the Alabama law and Alabama’s governor Kay Ivey.

“I can’t imagine trying to build self-esteem in childhood as your own government attempts to undermine your very existence. You should know you are profoundly valuable and irreplaceable.”

“The [law] is absolutely appalling… No one should ever receive criminal punishment for providing healthcare to young people.”

“As for Kay Ivey: what the fuck is wrong with you…The people in Alabama deserve a lot better than you.”

This is the type of behavior I wanted to see from Stewart, because yes, what the actual fuck is wrong with these people? They are forcing medical professionals to completely disregard the very reason as to why they exist and to abandon their code of ethics. Arkansas may not have made it a felony, yet, but these doctors are at risk of having their medical licenses revoked.

Oliver also made trans rights a main segment on his June 28, 2015 episode, where he details the massive strides towards acceptance the trans community has made. He called out the inappropriateness of talk show hosts interviewing their trans guests about their surgeries and genitalia and the ridiculousness of bathroom bans. Oliver ends the segment by saying “This is a civil rights issue.” You’re absolutely right John, so why isn’t the mainstream left media doing more to combat this 7 years later?

In Oliver’s most recent segment he throws a lot of information out about what’s been happening recently. He mentions the increase in anti-trans bills being proposed, the threats to children’s hospitals, campaign ads against trans athletes, the rumors of litter boxes in schools, and the misinformation surrounding gender affirming care. It’s a lot of information to take in, and I can’t help but wonder why more left leaning media news sources haven’t spoken about these issues sooner.

Pointedly, Oliver seems to answer the question himself in his segment:

“Frustratingly, there are many on the left who seem reluctant to engage on this issue”

I believe Oliver and Stewart to be part of those that are reluctant. After all, Oliver’s last main segment on this civil rights issue was 7 years ago, while the target on trans people’s backs have been getting bigger by each passing day. This isn’t to say that I expect Oliver and Stewart to be the spokespeople for trans issues, or for trans issues to be discussed as frequently. However, when political pundits on the far right are comparing the LGBTQ community to a cancer, people have to start doing something.

From Tucker Carlson to Joe Rogan, two prominent media figures with millions of people listening, trans people have been talked about in the most disingenuous ways. Trans athletes, trans kids, and the livelihoods of trans people in general have had over 86 segments air on Fox News since March of this year and it has only grown since. Oliver is right when saying “It’s not actually the left talking about trans rights non-stop, it’s Republicans. To ignore them doing that is to allow them to have real, calamitous impacts on people’s lives.” My question again being why hasn’t the left done more, and once we stop ignoring the right’s obsession with trans issues; what’s the plan to correct the indoctrination that their audiences have been overdosing on for years?

If the comments made on shows like Tucker Carlson, The Joe Rogan Experience, and The Matt Walsh Show aren’t bad enough, what about the real world consequences these types of comments have, such as at this Conway, Arkansas open forum on whether trans kids should use the restroom associated with their gender identity. One speaker who was spoke against LGBT people had this to say:

“God gave them over to a depraved mind so that they do what they should not be doing. They invent ways of doing evil, but let me remind you that those who do such things deserve death. The LGBT community not only continues to do these very things but also approves of those who practice them.”

When these types of comments toward transgender people continue to be allowed and broadcasted without prominent people on the left defending us, it leads to even more extreme bills being proposed against us. Just take this recently proposed bill by House Republicans, which states that any mention of gender identity or gender dysphoria is classified as “sexually-oriented material” when it comes to federal funding. A bill they’re calling the “Stop Sexualization of Children Act”.

These types of bills are only pushing the “trans people are pedophiles” narrative further and further, which has lead to assaults on drag queens and children’s hospitals being threatened. All of which could have been preventable had more people on the left actually spoken up and did something about this earlier. Instead, it’s feeling more and more like a civil war would need to break out before anyone on the left actually begins to realize the consequences of not more actively defending the LGBTQ community.

Though I appreciate Oliver and Stewart addressing some of these issues, they still seem apprehensive to bring up the end result of these attacks. We all know Conservatives do not care about children or their healthcare. (unless they’re still in the womb apparently), if they did they wouldn’t listen to the supposed “experts” that AG Rutledge had on her panel. Children are just the first step at eliminating trans healthcare altogether. The result of that obviously being to reduce the number of trans people living their lives freely. Put more bluntly, Genocide.

Alabama’s law is the first example of this. The law states that those who are 19 years of age and younger cannot receive gender affirming care, however, the state’s legal age for minor’s consenting to other medical treatments is 14. We can also look at this recent public complaint from Governor Ron DeSantis of Florida regarding try to ban drag performances. In his complaint he references a 1947 ruling that stated “men impersonating women in a suggestive fashion” is a nuisance. If this ruling could potentially be used to ban drag performers, who’s to say it also wouldn’t be used to ban trans people from also presenting as their gender identity. This is just a repeat of the cross-dressing laws that once existed in San Francisco and many other cities. Lastly, we also have Florida no longer offering gender affirmation care to those who are on Medicaid.

This is only going to continue. These stories are becoming more frequent by the day, and unfortunately many left media news sources are not addressing this. It feels like most of the work to get this information out to the masses is being done by individual trans people and their allies. Trans people are being targeted and sitting idly by is going to put the trans community in more danger. I expect better from people in positions of authority who claim to be allies of trans people. Fight back against the 86 anti-trans news segments and show solidarity with trans people before it’s too late.