Comedian Bill Maher, a pro-abortion liberal atheist, has flip-flopped on the issue of transgenderism, but he has been increasingly vocal about the extremism and absurdity of gender ideology, including on a recent podcast appearance.
(LifeSiteNews) -- Comedian Bill Maher is an endangered species: an anti-woke, pro-abortion liberal atheist willing to call out the Democrats out for woke extremism. In a recent interview with the “Pod Save America” hosts, Maher informed Obama speechwriter Jon Lovett that if the Democrats didn’t back away from gender ideology, they would keep on losing elections.
Bill Maher is the sort of old-school sexual revolutionary who appears frustrated that the revolution didn’t stop where he wanted it to. The notoriously promiscuous drug user, who counted porn king Hugh Hefner among his close friends and frequented the orgiastic parties at the Playboy mansion, has rightfully noted that pornography has become vile and extreme. He supported redefining marriage but is profoundly uncomfortable about redefining gender.
Maher has flip-flopped on the issue as he attempted to figure out the “reasonable” position on "sex changes" but has been increasingly vocal about the extremism and absurdity of gender ideology. He has cautiously defended parental rights; referred to LGBT education in schools as "entrapment" in a brilliant, scathing monologue; promoted Abigail Shrier’s bombshell book Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Children; condemned "sex changes" for kids on "The Joe Rogan Experience."
During his "Pod Save America" appearance on February 23, Maher went on the offensive:
Maher stated that although he didn’t think this was going on everywhere, there were some “far-left places” where children were taught that “maybe you’re not in the right body.” He mocked the absurdity of the trans-speak phrase “assigned sex at birth.” Lovett attempted to act as if that phrase is normal, and Maher pushed back: “Assigned? I was assigned it by my d***, okay.” Lovett made a disapproving noise in response.
“The fact that you think …that many people on the left think that even if you just have this debate, it makes you a bigot, you just have to roll over, that - you asked about the Biden administration. That was their position,” Maher went on. “If you even question this, you’re some sort of a bigot. And this is new science, and it has to do with children, and it’s not going to look good in the future, that position.”
Lovett shot back by comparing Maher’s position opposing "sex-change" surgeries for the young to the old “Christian Right position” that older gay men were “recruiting children.” He admitted that some people regret “transition,” but stated that even heart surgeries can “go wrong” and nobody says “let’s stop the cardiologists.” Maher snorted. “Wow. That’s your analogy?” Lovett plunged on and claimed that the science “makes clear” that “gender-affirming care saves a lot of lives” and that opposition to it is essentially a “far-right” campaign.
Maher pushed back, informing Lovett that the studies, in fact, show differently, and cited the example of a report in the New York Times about a study being suppressed because it did not support sex-change "treatments." Lovett got increasingly animated, insisting that the government should stay out of it, and that it should be left to children, doctors, and parents - although admitting that not all parents should be allowed to make the decisions, because some were “f****** terrible.” He did not specify who exactly those parents were, but we can guess.
Maher cut him off: “You want ... to lose every election: Just keep coming down on the side of parents coming in second in a 'who gets to decide what goes on with my kid' contest.”
He may be right - there is good evidence that the Democrats lost key, perhaps even election-deciding votes on the transgender issue. But Maher isn’t conservative on gender ideology; he’s merely reading the writing on the wall. He joked on his show recently that Trump’s executive order re-affirming two sexes is “ridiculous,” but that he was “glad I’m one of the ones we’re keeping”:
That, for the record, is a Democratic strategist admitting that the transgender issue can’t be a hill that Democrats die on. Maher is a Democrat. He backs the sexual revolution to the hilt. He admits that abortion kills babies but doesn’t care - it’s the safety valve on a culture that prizes unattached sex above all. His new clarity of mind has nothing to do with a pivot, and everything to do with his crusade to save the Democrats from themselves.
Maher wants them to de-transition. After a decade of progressives telling us all that we are genocidal bigots for disagreeing with gender ideology, we’ll see how that goes. The damage, I suspect, may be irreversible.
