On Last Week Tonight over the weekend, John Oliver addressed Republicans’ fear-mongering about transgender rights, mocking conservatives for believing that accepting trans kids has led to furries taking over schools and chastising them for passing laws that discriminate against transgender kids.
“It’s not actually the left talking about trans rights non-stop, it’s Republicans who see an advantage in demagoguing this issue,” Oliver said. “And to ignore them doing that is to allow them to have real, calamitous impacts on people’s lives.”
In the segment, Oliver talked about Kai Shappley, a trans youth activist whose family had to flee the state of Texas due to anti-trans policies; Mack Beggs, the trans boy who was forced to wrestle on the girls’ team and face protests at matches; and Dylan Brandt, who is suing the state of Arkansas over its ban on gender-affirming care.
He picked apart fake statistics used by transphobes to promote anti-trans laws, like Abigail Shrier’s claims about “rapid onset gender dysphoria” based on a study that only polled the unaccepting parents of trans youth.
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Oliver also addressed furry panic, which has seen Republican pundits and elected officials all over the country claim that schools are allowing students who identify as furries to use litterboxes in school, a myth made up to mock the idea of trans kids living as their authentic selves.
“If kids were using litter boxes in class, a state representative from Minnesota would not be the one breaking that news to you,” Oliver joked. “If a kid sh*t in a litterbox in first period, it would be the only thing anyone in that state was talking about by lunch. Minnesota would change its state motto to ‘Minnesota: Y’know, the state where that kid sh*t in a litterbox.'”
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