>> Youngkin,
you're transgender model policy required that students play on the sports teams and
use the restrooms that correspond with their sex assigned at birth.
Look at me, I am a transgender man.
Do you really think that the girls in my high school would feel comfortable sharing
a restroom with me?
>> That was 17-year old high school student confronting Republican governor of
Virginia Glenn Youngkin about his party's LGBTQ school policies at a CNN Town Hall.
The beginning of his response was giving typical politician, but
then he actually answered pretty directly.
Let's take a look.
>> So first of all, Nico, thank you for again,
asking the question being here tonight and engaging in this important discussion.
I believe, first, when parents are engaged with their children,
then you can make good decisions together and I met your dad and
I'm glad that you're both here together.
That's really, really important.
I also think that there are lots of students involved in this decision and
what's most important is that we try very hard to accommodate students.
That's why I have said many, many times we just need extra bathrooms in schools.
We need general neutral bathrooms.
And so people can use the bathroom that they, in fact are comfortable with.
>> There's more to his response in a moment.
But first, the more details about the policies his party has been pushing for.
According to Virginia's Department of Education Model Policies released in 2022,
students will be required to use bathrooms, locker rooms and
participate in sports leagues that correspond to their biological sex.
That's according to Kaitlin Lewis and Newsweek.
We will come back to the sports issue in a moment, because it's a complicated one.
It also stipulates, however, that students who want to change their name or gender on
official school records can do so only if their family submits legal documentation.
And that school staff cannot refer to students by their desired name or
pronoun, unless their parents request the change in writing.
And even so, school staff would not have to refer to a student's preferred names,
regardless of paperwork.
If they feel doing so would, quote,
violate their constitutionally protected rights.
Under Virginia's previous guidelines, students are allowed to use the pronouns,
bathrooms or locker rooms that reflect their gender identity.
Schools are also advice not to disclose a student's
gender identity to other students or parents, but get a load of this.
Youngkin's new guidelines state that no policy guidance training or other written
material issued may encourage or instruct teachers to conceal material information
about a student from the student's parents including information related to gender.
Meaning, teachers may be obligated to out trans students to their parents.
Plus, the policy also says that a parent must know if a child sees a counselor for
gender related issues.
Throughout the town hall on Thursday, Youngkin said his approach to LGBT issues
and other educational policy starts with a focus on parents and transparency.
When asked about his position on the removal of certain books from school
libraries, the governor said it was important to, quote,
make sure parents know what's in the library and
parents understand what materials are being used in the curriculum.
So now let's go back to his town hall answer and
hear what he has to say about transgender students, and sports.
>> I think sports are very clear and I don't think it's controversial.
I don't think that biological boys should be playing sports with biological girls.
There's been decades of efforts in order to gain opportunities for
women in sports and it's just not fair, and I think that's noncontroversial,
and something that I think is pretty well understood.
Again, I think these are very difficult discussions and I am very,
very glad to see you and your dad here together.
>> And this might be controversial for me to say, but I personally think that
when it comes to bathrooms, gender identity should be what which one you use.
But when it comes to sports teams,
I think personally that still should be decided based on biological sex.
I think it's beautiful and the right thing to do if we are an evolving society to
embrace the whole spectrum of people's identity and different identities, and
they should not only be respected is who they truly feel that they are.
But also of course, never ever discriminated against.
But that does not mean that we support people's gender identity that while we
support people's gender identity,
that their biological sex needs to see smattering in all circumstances.
There are simply physical differences between biological males and females, and
we don't have to ignore that fact to support, and respect transgender people.
That said, whichever side you come down on on the issue of sports,
the reality is that we're also not seeing an epidemic of trans athletes like
Republicans make it seem.
And in 2021, legislators in more than 20 states introduced bills that would
ban transgender girls from competing on girls sports teams in public high schools.
Yet, in almost every case and I quote,
sponsors these bills could not cite a single instance in their own state or
region where such participation has caused problems.
The associated press reached out to two dozen state lawmakers sponsoring such
measures around the country, as well as conservative groups supporting them and
found only a few times that it has been an issue.
So that's my thoughts on this complicated issue you've seen the clips.
Cenk, curious your thoughts.
>> Yeah, so first, let me give Youngkin, their Republican governor of Virginia
credit on a number of things and then I'll tell you what the trick is, okay?
So number one, he actually looked reasonable.
He wasn't necessarily reasonable as I'm gonna tell you, but he looked reasonable.
He even looked human, so I was kind of taken aback when I saw this clip.
I'm so used to Republicans being outward visible.
Republican politicians being outward visible monsters
where they're not hiding anymore and I was halfway expecting the guy.
That's a trans kid making a really great point, right?
Really, he should be in the girl's bathroom?
What a great point, right?
And I have three quarters to a 90% expected the Republican to
respond with, yeah, look, the woke politics in America.
We're not gonna stand for it.
I'm like, no, no, no, please be human for a second and he was human.
Thank God.
All right, so number two, I agree with Ben on sports, but with a huge caveat.
Look guys, is their biological differences in among the genders in terms of
strength and speed?
Yes, is it true that all men are faster and stronger than all men?
And of course, not, right?
But on average, especially for the best performers,
the men do perform better in sports, physical activities like that.
So if you're talking about professional sports, if Lebron James was trans.
And by the way, it could be him, it could be anybody, right?
It's just how you're born.
We don't know, but let's say that he was born trans and
he wanted to play in the WNBA.
No, that's a joke, right?
You can't have that, that's absurd, right?
So on the other hand, do we really need to apply to high schools
where there's seven cases in the whole country?
I don't know the exact number, it's kind of in that ballpark, right?
Look at the stat that Ben read you, most of the states is proposed,
they can't find a single case.
So wait a minute, why are we even talking about this?
Are there all these trans athletes who are going to play at the professional level or
Olympics and this is causing a giant cause?
There it's almost none, right?
Why are we talking about this?
See, the thing is Youngkin is smarter than guys like Trump,
etc., cuz he can conceal things better.
But in reality, he knows it's not a problem in Virginia and
he proposed it because it's called a wedge issue in politics.
And wedge issue means something where I could get you angry about a cultural
issue, a demographic issue.
Get you to hate someone and use that hatred to get votes, so Youngkin looks so
reasonable and I'm really, really glad your dad is here.
But wait, are you?
Because you're actually stripping parents of the ability to control things for
their kids.
You're saying, I don't want you to make the decisions.
In a lot of states they say, okay,
we're gonna block anything that leads to transitioning.
Sometimes, even therapy, puberty, blockers, etc.
Now look, I don't know what you should do with that if you're a parent who's gonna
translate, I literally don't know, right?
But I kind of think that's up to you, right, not up to me.
But Youngkin thinks, no, I don't want your dad making the decision,
I wanna make the decision.
The government needs to make decision, but he's smiling.
It looks so reasonable, he's telling you he likes that you and
your dad are together.
Now, he doesn't want you to have rights and
he doesn't want your dad to be able to control your childhood.
He wants the governor himself, the government,
the tyrannical government to control your family's life over a non-issue just cuz
he thinks I might be able to drum up some hatred here to get myself some more votes.
So that's what this pleasant looking man on TV was doing.
>> I wanna talk about the part of the law where they're proposing that teachers and
staff aren't allowed to call kids by their preferred names or
their pronouns, it's like what?
We do this all the time.
So if someone's name is Katherine, you call them Katie.
If they wanna be called Katie or Kate or if someone's name is James and
they wanna be called Jimmy, that happens all the time.
So now is the law such that you have to look down the James P Whitworth IV.
Present, really, is that what we're doing now?
No, we can't go by nicknames.
We can't go by preferred names.
We can't go by preferred nothing.
No, James P Whitworth IV.
It's calling roll call that's gonna take half an hour.
>> [LAUGH] >> And
a couple more facts on the story here.
Youngkin's administration hasn't established a clear timeline for
when the model policies will take effect.
In the fall, the state was still reviewing more than 71,000 comments it had received
during a public feedback period.
And in December,
commission of state lawmakers filed an objection to the guidelines, but some
school districts in Virginia have already chosen to implement the new policies.
Nonetheless, Virginia is far from alone in engaging in these
in these often times bigoted culture wars.
So far in 2023, the Human Rights Campaign is tracking more than 400 anti-LGBTQ+
bills that have been introduced in statehouses across the country.
175 of those would specifically restrict the rights of transgender people,
the highest number of bills targeting transgender people in a single year
to date.
So that's the reason why, I think Cenk was just
explaining that using it as a wedge issue is an unfair,
unreasonable and hateful thing to do.
But I also do think there's room for
a conversation about these things where we don't have to always on the left
have these very immediate reactions as well where we fall victim to that.
We can also have nuanced opinions on things that can make them
seem unreasonable and not make us seem unreasonable, but
show that we have some way to find middle ground.
>> And I agree with you, Cenk, why are we talking about this?
This is an important issue to such a small minority.
And yes, there shouldn't be discrimination based on gender.
They shouldn't be discrimination based on gender identity,
but let's talk about healthcare or the fact that schools
are falling apart or the fact that kids are dying.
This is not, I don't think this issue should be more important
than the fact that high school students are doing or
dying by guns on a daily basis, maybe talk about this first.
>> True, but just a quick counter to that, I think the fact that these things
are being discussed and we can't stop the right from talking about them constantly.
I do think it's then incumbent on people on the left to not let them
characterize us in ways where they can say, look, they are unreasonable.
They can't listen to an argument, because then it just splits things further and
we're as guilty as the other side of keeping people divided.
>> So let me address what both of you guys are saying.
So first of all, look, it's actually relatively easy to address things like,
hey, change makes people uncomfortable.
So in the old days, they didn't know that there were trans people, were there?
Yeah, there were, right, but they just didn't know it, right?
So now when they know it, it's hard for people to adjust.
It's okay to admit that, okay?
So for you, I'll give you a personal example.
And so one, but it kinda connects, right?
So when I came to the country, my name is Cenk Uygur, but it's the C spelled with,
I'm sorry, the Cenk is spelled with a C, right?
So it looks like Senk Yegur or something like that and people would say to me
all the time, why don't you just change your name to an American name?
Okay, and back then, it didn't even seem weird, right?
No, Cenk is also an American name.
What they meant is an Anglo name.
But guys, what I'm the reason I'm using that example is because I get it,
it doesn't look like I name.
They're familiar with, they're comfortable with.
Why is the C pronounced like a J?
It's freaking me out, right?
And so it doesn't help if I go.
Well, you're being racist against me.
No, no, just tell, hey, it's a different country, different language.
This is like a J and Turkish.
Hey, now you can impress all your Turkish friends, okay?
>> Right.
>> And so it's incumbent on us to be a little bit more accepting to like I get
it, it's making you uncovered, but it really shouldn't.
Let me tell you why shouldn't, right?
So that's point one, point two, what Helen said.
So why are we spending time on this one?
It's a right-wing attack point to distract us,
because that's the other genius of the wedge issue.
Not only does it get your side to hate the others and give you their votes, so
you can get tax cuts for the rich, right?
But the other thing that it does is it forces the left,
it weaponize is our decency against us.
They think, you know what?
Americans are not ready for trans people, because it's kind of relatively new.
They got used to gay people.
We used to hate them and used to tell them to hate them.
But now they're kind of used and they realize it's in their family, okay?
Now let's get them to hate trans people because they're not as familiar with
them, right?
And the great thing is it'll become the biggest issue in the country cuz once
we attack people for no reason at all and we spread our fear and
hatred, they left are two decent.
They'll have to fight back, they'll have to defend them.
And once they defend them, they fall into our trap.
[LAUGH] You're making people uncomfortable, tax cuts for
the rich, okay?
That's what literally what happens,
literally what happened in the Trump years, okay?
So the last things here are number one, look,
don't believe anything that comes out of a lying politician's mouth.
So for example, he's like, you know what?
I really think we should have more bathrooms, really?
Did you put forward a bill to finance more bathrooms in the public schools?
You didn't, right?
I mean, look at the insanity.
Helen is so right, what's the bigger issue for your kids in schools?
Is it getting ripped apart by an AR-15?
I know I'm scared to death of it.
So many parents are worried to send their kids to school,
cuz there's nonstop massacres in the schools.
Is that issue a little bit more important than a trans kid playing
in the wrong sport in the middle of Idaho, the one case that you found?
Guys, you all know it's 10,000 times more important.
Yet, what do they propose for that?
First of all, nothing.
But second of all, they say mental health and you say, hey, wait,
do you wanna fund mental health?
They go, no, we were just lying.
And then they say, maybe the answer is more doors.
So more doors and more toilets over nonsensical issues that we brought
up to divide the country, and drive hatred.
What we could do instead of what the Democrats should do instead is every time
this issue comes up and goes, hey, good news guys.
I know you're concerned about education, right?
You're concerned about the high schools, what's going on your kids, right?
I'm concerned about it, my number one concern is the teachers.
They're way underpaid, they're underpaid according to, compared to other countries
compared to where three decades ago, compared to other industries.
So why don't we do Bernie Sanders bill pay every teacher in America $60,000 a year?
Attracted much better talent that way,
make sure kids have a wonderful education and good news.
It only costs 5% of the defense budget and the congressional budget office,
nonpartisan says that the defense budget is at least 15% too much pork barrel
politics that goes to nothing but waste.
Let's just take a third of that waste and spend it on our teachers.
So you have a great school system, that would be an incredibly constructive
way to fight back against the war on teachers and the war on parents.
>> And the great benefit, Cenk, to what you said about the decency of us on
the left, fighting for people's rights and compassionately.
Trying to support people is that we actually then move
the issue to a place where the debate becomes about these
small number of transgender athletes in schools.
Or in professional sports instead of it being where they would prefer the issue to
be about transgender rights in general, and respect and
acknowledging their humanity.
We've already won that,
we've already helped move that issue towards a place of compassion.
And now it's about the details and that's a big win, I think.