Bill Maher and Neil deGrasse Tyson debate transgender athletes
Comedian Bill Maher confronted scientist Neil deGrasse Tyson over his views on gender and transgender athletes.
HBO host and comedian Bill Maher clashed with popular astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson on Maher's "Club Random" podcast on Sunday over how to address "woke" college campuses and transgender athletes.
Tyson brought up how Maher no longer performs stand-up on college campuses, and asked if the comedian was writing off "an entire generation" by refusing to "adjust" to the shift in what students find acceptable to joke about.
"So why is it their fault and not your fault?" he prodded Maher.
Maher defended his stance, saying "literally" every comedian had abandoned performing at colleges because they can't avoid offending students. He slammed Tyson for not "calling out" the far-left's threat to free speech on campuses.
Bill Maher confronted Neil deGrasse Tyson over his comments on gender and transgender athletes on his Club Random podcast. (Getty Images)
"I have given up on any place that doesn't even remotely attempt to believe in free speech, and thinks that anything they hear that they don't like, that they don't agree with is violence. These people are f---ing nuts, and you should be calling them out," Maher charged Tyson.
"You're doing what parents do: You're taking the path of least resistance, and therefore hurting the kids and yourself. Parents ruin both their lives. They ruin their f---ing spoiled kids' lives, and they ruin their own lives because the kids rule the roost. So that's what you're doing on a national level," he told Tyson.
Tyson retorted that he wanted to avoid alienating his younger audience by navigating the "land mines" of the culture, so he could still have an influence.
"It's not good enough to be right, you also have to be effective," he argued.
NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON EXPLODES DURING DEBATE ABOUT TRANS WOMEN COMPETING IN WOMENS SPORTS
Maher previously mocked Ivy league schools for antisemitic protests on campus. (JOSEPH PREZIOSO / Contributor)
Later on, the pair moved on to debate what should be done in athletic competitions with transgender athletes.
Tyson suggested that competitions like track meets could be divided into "hormone" categories like wrestling is categorized by body weight, to settle concerns about transgender men having an unfair advantage in women's sports.
"So all I’m saying is, what is it that makes the man, the ‘man’?" the scientist asked. "Is it the hormones? OK. If it’s the hormones, and you decide to give yourself a different cocktail of hormones — I’m making this up, by the way. I’m not saying it should happen this way. It’s a way to start thinking about it. Maybe the track meets have hormone categories."
After sighing at Tyson's suggestion, Maher challenged Tyson to agree that cross-hormone therapy was not healthy.
"Would you not admit that? Do you think we can just safely do things like this?" he asked.
Instead of answering Maher's question, Tyson suggested the host's concerns about the health effects of these treatments was disingenuous.
"So you feel this way because you’re concerned about — you are so deeply concerned about the health of the people who try to find their place on the gender spectrum? You care about their health so much that you don’t want them to go through that?" he asked.
FILE - A protester outside the Kansas Statehouse holds a sign after a rally for transgender rights on the Transgender Day of Visibility, March 31, 2023, in Topeka, Kan. (AP Photo/John Hanna)
Maher retorted that while it doesn't "keep him up at night," he does care for the well-being of every person.
He quickly wrapped up the conversation soon after, admitting they wouldn't come to a consensus on the issue.
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