On a recent episode of ITV's Good Morning Britain, host Piers Morgan was joined by member of the Labour Party Lisa Nandy, who dug into him concerning his previous lack of support for transgender individuals.
During the interview, Nandy, who is currently campaigning to lead Britain's labour party, the liberal minority group in Parliament, called Morgan out for his past mockery and lack of engagement with transgender men.
At one point, Morgan changed his Twitter profile picture to a penguin, saying he identified as a penguin to mock the transgender community.
After Nandy expressed disbelief at Morgan's inability to understand the plight of transgender people, he struck back with an unexpected straw man argument.
"Why wouldn't you come on Good Morning Britain to tell us whether it's fair for Usain Bolt to self-identify as female? It's complete madness."
"You've created more heat and less light. Usain Bolt is not planning to self-identify as a woman and compete."
Morgan then pressed even harder:
"How far do trans rights go against women's rights? I'm trying to defend women's rights in a grotesquely unfair situation… What am I doing that's so wrong?"
Nandy wasn't having any of it.
"You're setting up a false war between women and trans rights. I'm sorry, I think this is outrageous."
That was when Morgan decided the perfect time to repeat his joke regarding penguins had arrived. Nandy shot him down quickly afterwards, saying:
"I think you're being trivial, because you're talking about penguins when actually trans people are the most discriminated against people in the country."
On Twitter, most people were firmly siding with Nandy.
Morgan couldn't seem to understand the very basic point Nandy was making: people should be able to self-identify.
Level headed experts should be making decisions as to how self-identity intersects with organized sporting events...not random men like Piers Morgan.
Morgan seems more interested in fighting than in understanding.
it's yet to be seen whether Nandy will become leader of the Labour Party, but she's sure to gain a few fans after such a deft interaction. Well done!
Jane Rosenberg
Jane Rosenberg
@arianagrande/Instagram
@arianagrande/Instagram