John Oliver, winner of Outstanding Scripted Variety and Outstanding Writing for a Variety Series “Last Week Tonight with John Oliver” poses in the press room during the 75th Emmy Awards at the Peacock Theatre at L.A. Live in Los Angeles on January 15, 2024. (Photo by ROBYN BECK/AFP via Getty Images)
OAN Staff Blake Wolf 11:02 AM – Wednesday, November 20, 2024
Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling criticized John Oliver’s recent pro-transgender monologue, where Oliver argued that there is “no evidence” transgender athletes “pose any threat to safety or fairness.”
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John Oliver’s comments came during an HBO segment last week, where he mocked the concerns of transgenders competing in women’s sports that could potentially cause harm to female athletes.
“The Harris campaign failed to formulate a response, especially because it’s pretty easy to do, watch, I’ll do it for you right now. As we’ve discussed before, there are vanishingly few trans-girls competing in high schools anywhere, even if there were more, trans-kids like all kids vary in terms of athletic ability, and there is no evidence they pose any threat to safety or fairness, ” Oliver stated.
John Oliver claims that there is no safety threat having male students compete against girls.
Payton McNabb suffered severe head injuries after being spiked in the face by a male competitor during a high school volleyball game.
Rowling posted a long response, tearing into Oliver’s talking points, characterizing his stance as “elitist post-modern ideology.”
“Again and again I’ve come up against men who argue exactly what Oliver does here, using the very same talking points. With a straight face, the ‘believe the science’ guys will say ‘actually, we don’t yet have enough data to say whether men and boys are stronger and faster than women and girls.’ The ‘be kind’ crew can’t see what the issue is. ‘Why are you bothered, it only affects a tiny minority of females?’” Rowling wrote on X.
“According to the UN, female athletes have lost nearly 900 medals to trans-identified men competing against them in women’s sporting categories. Girls have been ousted from teams to make way for boys. Women have suffered serious injury playing against trans-identified men (see Payon McNabb, mentioned below),” she continued, citing a recent United Nations report revealing that nearly 900 biological females did not medal after being beaten by transgenders.
McNabb was a former North Carolina high-school volleyball player who suffered a concussion after a transgender athlete spiked a ball at her in the face.
“To prove to their progressive credentials – and (coincidentally, I’m sure) indemnify themselves against repercussions from cultural elites in the media, academia and publishing who’ve showed themselves more than ready to kick people to the kerb for failing to mouth the approved mantras – people with a lot to lose are currently prepared to make idiots of themselves. They’ll stare unabashedly into a camera and insist that their audiences’ eyeballs are incapable of seeing what’s plain as day, and that there’s something wrong with the great unwashed for believing that girls are being robbed of opportunities and put at physical risk,” she added.
“If you want to tell the world you’re happy to watch females suffer injury, humiliation and the loss of sporting opportunities to bolster an elitist post-modern ideology embraced by a minute fraction of the world’s population, fair enough; you’re allowed your opinion. But if you’ve just told girls they don’t deserve fair sport, maybe rethink using all too real and common sexual predation against young women as a punchline for your ‘edgy’ closing joke,” she concluded.
Nothing about this feels good, because John Oliver generously gave his time for my charity Lumos and I liked him very much when I met him, but God knows, if you ever need an example of motivated reasoning and confirmation bias, this video’s for you. An undoubtedly intelligent… https://t.co/3IS4onzXq0
