Comedian Bill Maher condemned gender-transitioning procedures in an appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience, declaring the idea they benefit a trans person’s health is "ridiculous."
Maher also stated that kids identifying as trans seems to be the new way teenagers say "f--- you" to their parents.
The two filmed the latest episode of the popular podcast over the weekend, where they discussed political topics including the indictments of former President Trump, race in America and transgenderism.
Maher, who has been a major critic on the left of so-called wokeness, hit the transgender movement, saying that it hurts people permanently and seems to be a social fad in many cases, rather than something done out of medical necessity.
"It’s terrifying that they’re calling it gender-affirming care, when it’s really childhood mutilation, before you have the ability to figure what permanent means. You’re f---ing seven years old," he said.
"Is trans a real thing? Of course. Are some people born in a body that, for lack of a better term, doesn’t – you’re born in the wrong body or your sexuality doesn’t match what’s in your mind gender-wise, and some of it is trendy!" Maher replied. "Some of it is just a TikTok challenge that got out of hand."
Rogan agreed, adding, "It’s a social contagion."
Maher then told Rogan that even if he did identify as a trans person he would not go through with gender-altering medical procedures because of the permanent damage he believed they would do to his body.
"If I was 100 billion percent convinced I was born in the wrong body, I still wouldn’t do anything to my body because medical considerations come first," Mahe said. "The idea that you can just take some sort of puberty blockers or just snap on, snap off organs without really hurting myself medically and taking years off my life is ridiculous."
The comedian noted he would just live with his body the way it is.
"And so somehow I would just make it work with the equipment I was born with because we’re just not that advanced medically to make it work and still be healthy," he said.
Paraphrasing George Orwell’s ideas from the dystopian novel "1984," Maher added, "You control the language, you control the ideas."
"If this is all real, why is it regional? Why can you go to a dinner party in Los Angeles with ten people and half of them have trans kids and that would never happen in Indiana," Maher said.
"Now maybe some people in Indiana are afraid to come out," he added. "That could be true too. I’m sure it is to some degree. But it’s just ridiculous that it’s a regional issue to this degree so obviously. And I know people who say, ‘Oh yeah, my school, all the kids wanna be trans.’"
"It’s just not cool being straight to be straight anymore," Maher declared, adding, "Every generation has to find a way to say to their parents who gave you everything, ‘F--- you. Whatever you do, I’m going to do different.’ And for a lot of kids that now is just gender."
