Dr Phil on Trump anti-transgender plan: Kiss my ass, you can’t do that
Dr Phil has made clear his opposition to the Trump administration’s anti-transgender plan.
TV psychologist Phil McGraw, who hosts long-running talk show Dr Phil, spoke out about the proposals in an interview with The Late Show host Stephen Colbert aired on Friday (October 26).
The TV star addressed reports that the Trump administration is set to adopt an aggressive new anti-transgender policy, barring legal recognition of trans people by redefining legal gender as a person’s fixed “biological sex” at birth.
Dr Phil and Stephen Colbert (CBS)
McGraw said of the proposals: “Well, good luck with that. That is the absolute height of arrogance… if you think you can just define something out of existence where does that come from?
“You think just, ‘I’m gonna change the word, I’m gonna take that out of the dictionary’ and these people cease to exist?
“Kiss my ass, you can’t do that!”
He added: “Really? I’m just gonna cross that word out of my vocabulary and this entire part of the world stops existing?”
Dr Phil (CBS)
The President has personally defended the policy despite resistance from within his own administration.
Asked about the plan on October 22, Trump responded: “We’re looking at it. We have a lot of different concepts right now.
“They have a lot of different things happening with respect to transgender right now. You know that as well as I do and we’re looking at it very seriously.”
Asked if he would protect the LGBT+ community, he responded: “I’m protecting everybody.”
When a reporter told the leader that “transgender Americans say you’ve given up on them,” Trump replied: “You know what I’m doing? I’m protecting everybody. I want to protect our country.”
The reports of Trump’s anti-trans policy proposal has been met with legal threats from both the American Civil Liberties Union and LGBT+ civil rights organisation Lambda Legal, who have vowed to launch immediate legal action against the Trump administration if the policy is ever enacted.
President Donald Trump (Ron Sachs – Pool/Getty)
In a separate court brief last week, the Trump administration argued that it should be legal for businesses to discriminate against transgender employees.
DOJ officials filed a brief to the Supreme Court on October 24, arguing against discrimination protections for transgender employees on the basis of sex. The brief contends that businesses have a right to enforce uniform requirements based on “biological sex,” forcing transgender women to present as male or face dismissal.
