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This ‘Dr. Phil’ Showdown Over Transgender Ideology Is Setting the Internet on Fire

Footage of a debate between a conservative commentator and LGBT activists on a recent episode of “Dr. Phil” has gone viral online.

SO WHAT

Opponents of progressive gender ideology are taking a victory lap.

WHAT HAPPENED

Twitter videos of the Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh verbally sparring with Addison Rose Vincent and other advocates of revolutionizing gender were viewed millions of times after the talk show aired Wednesday.

1. In the most-watched clip, Walsh, a popular podcaster, challenged Vincent, who identifies as “non-binary,” to define the term “woman.”

2. At another point, Walsh disputed the notion that there are more than two genders.

3. To make the case against granting bathroom access based on gender identity, as opposed to biological sex, Walsh cited a recent high-profile sexual assault at a school in Loudon County, Virginia.

4. “I care about the truth,” Walsh said in response to a fellow guest who questioned his focus on transgender issues.

THE REACTION

Many LGBT activists were appalled by Walsh’s appearance on “Dr. Phil,” but traditionalists on Twitter cheered his performance.

  • “Post-liberal” thought leader Sohrab Ahmari declared, “Matt absolutely killed this.”
  • Anti-feminist commentator Inez Stepman, echoing others on the right, praised Walsh for helping to bring a “basic understanding of reality and sex differences to a mainstream audience.”

Meanwhile, Vincent reported Thursday that the controversy had triggered “anxiety,” “nightmares” and “depression spirals.”

WINNING?: Beyond daytime TV, elite liberal U.S. institutions have also signaled new openness to mild dissent from the transgender-rights orthodoxy, whose proponents have been famously censorious and vindictive.

  • In the words of journalist Andrew Sullivan, a New York Times report last week “conceded that there is, indeed, a debate among medical professionals, transgender people, gays and lesbians and others about medical intervention for pre-pubescent minors who have gender dysphoria. The story pulled some factual punches, but any mildly-fair airing of this debate in the US MSM is a breakthrough of a kind.”
  • Days earlier, the Washington Post published an article laying out both sides of a national argument over Lia Thomas, a transgender University of Pennsylvania swimmer who has “shattered” women’s records and “sent waves of controversy across the swimming world.”
  • On Wednesday, the NCAA updated its policy on transgender athletes competing in women’s sports, putting more rigorous restrictions on swimmers like Thomas.

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