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Joe Rogan invited conservative pundit Matt Walsh onto his podcast to chat about gender issues, but the latter got schooled live on-air after making the claim that "millions" of children are on hormone blockers.
Walsh is a Daily Wire host who recently released the documentary What Is a Woman?, which attempts to poke holes in arguments surrounding transgender and gender issues. In his appearance on The Joe Rogan Experience on Monday, some of Walsh's comments got debunked by one of the podcast's producers.
"How many people have had this done?" Rogan asked at one point in the podcast, referencing the blockers.
"Depends on what—I don't think we have exact numbers, but it's—if we're talking about the drugs, it's, I mean, millions," Walsh answered.
Rogan appeared surprised by the total.
"Millions of kids have been on hormone blockers? Really?" he said.
"I'm sure someone's going to fact check me on it, but my guess is that we're in—we're into the millions now at this point," Walsh replied.
Shortly after, a podcast producer displayed a Reuters story on a projection screen showing that—although it could be an undercount—about 4,780 children with "a prior gender dysphoria diagnosis" have been put on the blockers over the past five years.
"I would guess, you know, hundreds of thousands at this—but I could be wrong," Walsh said.
"A million sounds great," Rogan replied.
"Media Matters will have fun with that clip," Walsh said, referencing the left-leaning media watchdog group.
At other points in the podcast, the two men discuss the subject of nonbinary gender identity. Walsh questioned people who use "they/them" pronouns, arguing that they should really be referred to as the gender-neutral pronoun "it."
"If you're calling yourself nonbinary, you have dehumanized yourself, because human beings exist in a sex binary: male and female," Walsh said. "If you're rejecting that, you are rejecting your human identity, and so you've already dehumanized yourself. You are actually an 'it.'"
LGBTQ+ groups have previously called out Rogan and Walsh for making damaging statements. Many of Rogan's past musings on LGBTQ+ issues are plastered on the website for the GLAAD Accountability Project, which logs discrimination and anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric from prominent figures.
Walsh has also been classified as "anti-LGBTQ+," with critics slamming his documentary What Is a Woman? as virulently "transphobic."
Newsweek reached out to Walsh and Rogan for comment.
Update 11/9/22, 10:50 a.m. ET: Some of the language in this story has been changed to reflect sensitivity concerns.
About the writer
Simone Carter is a Newsweek reporter based in Texas. Her focus is covering all things in national news. Simone joined ... Read more