Tucker Carlson echoes trans advocates on a key trans athletes issue
Tucker Carlson has been a darling of many conservatives for years. Now he's departing with them on a key trans athlete talking point. The post Tucker Carlson echoes trans advocates on a key trans athletes issue appeared first on Outsports.

Tucker Carlson isn’t exactly known as a supporter of transgender people or trans athletes. Quite the opposite. While a TV host at Fox News, the conservative pundit routinely put the trans community, and trans athletes in particular, on blast, personally elevating the voices of virulently anti-trans people.
Yet Carlson recently gave a speech in which he agreed with a key issue trans advocates have been making for years.
While layering in misgendering and an anti-trans slur, Carlson made the argument that conservatives are way too focused on the issue of trans athletes, and that there are much more important issues for Americans and the success of America than what team has a trans girl on its roster.
Carlson put it as you’d expect he would, lecturing many conservative leaders:
Get off the sidelines and into the game
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“You spend all day telling me that it’s so important that boys not play on girls soccer teams or whatever,” Carlson said to the audience at Turning Point USA. “I agree. I hate the tr**ny stuff. passionately. I think you should keep the boys off of girls soccer teams.”
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That drew applause from the audience. Then:
“But i don’t know, it kind of feels lilke you’re feeding me appetizers. At some point i want to look around and see a better country,” Carlson said, reflecting the notion that banning trans women from female sports does nothing to make America a better place.
There was more.
“i want to see a country I recognize. I don’t want to see people sleeping on the sidewalk. I don’t want to see people OD’ing on drugs. I want to know where these drugs are coming from.”
After ranting about the use of the United States Military and the need to stop the flow of illegal drugs and cleaning up America’s great cities, he put an exclamation point on his rant against what he said is the over-sized focus on trans athletes.
“You’re lecturing me about how it’s a great moral victory that I kicked the boys off the girls soccer team? Good. I’m so glad. But let’s do the real stuff like make New York livable, and create an economy where my kids can have kids.”
This is the same point many trans-athlete advocates have made for years, that people opposing trans rights and trans athletes, as well as conservative media, are spending an inordinate amount of time on this issue, when the country faces much bigger problems.
Tucker Carlson has shifted since leaving Fox News
Tucker Carlson was fired from Fox News a little over two years ago. Since then, he has broken more and more with traditional conservative and Republican talking points.
His remarks on trans athletes are consistent with one of his general themes since leaving Fox News: that both Republicans and Democrats are focused way too much on issues that don’t improve the everyday lives of the American people. That position has resulted in, among other things, his vocal opposition to America’s financial support of Ukraine in its military conflict with Russia.
While his trans-athlete comments are quite consistent with his voice since leaving Fox News, it’s also surprising to hear one of the leading conservative voices in the country say it. That’s particularly true given how much air time he gave the topic — and anti-trans voices — while at Fox News.
When he needed TV ratings, he was happy to lean into it.
Carlson’s comments have upset various conservatives, including the folks at OutKick. No media entity relies more on belittling trans athletes for clicks than OutKick. So it’s not surprising Carlson’s comments would hit a nerve with the rabidly anti-trans publication.
There were many comments on social media from countless conservatives disagreeing with Carlson as well. He has been building a reputation of repudiating some conservative methods and ideology, so it’s no surprise he’d get pushback here.
Still, it’s fascinating and informative to hear Carlson lay out the issue like this directly in front of a conservative audience.
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The post Tucker Carlson echoes trans advocates on a key trans athletes issue appeared first on Outsports.