 I just can't be a part of TYT anymore. It's just too much, it's ridiculous. Because at a certain point it becomes embarrassing for me. Because how can I as a trans person who actually knows the science behind this, who actually is like actively trying to support trans people as somebody that people look up to me, right? People who literally like send me messages and be like, I'm so inspired, you know, you being a TYT and I have to deal with messages from them now asking about, hey, what's going on with TYT? Hey, what the hell is happening here? Well, like, why is Anna saying this? Why is Jiang saying this? And that is just like the amount of like psychic damage that I have to take every single day dealing with not only the transphobic nonsense of the Republicans, but also whatever Jiang and Anna are on right now, it's just too much. And I just, cause at a certain point it becomes embarrassing because then people think that I'm like endorsing their views. And I cannot, I will not. I refuse to lend any support to those views whatsoever. You just watched a small portion of Benny Carolo's 30 minute long video explaining in great detail why she is leaving TYT. Now, for those of you who don't know, Benny was a TYT contributor, but as a trans person, she can simply no longer condone the anti-trans rhetoric coming from the show's main hosts. Now, if you're unaware, Benny is not the only trans TYT contributor to call it quits. Sandy Lovis, a non-binary person who also hosts Left of the Box, also left the network recently and recently spoke out as well for the same reason. A year ago when I had only been working on Rebel HQ for a month, I called out Jiang and Anna on this very issue. Do you think I wasn't aware of the risk attached to that? Damn straight, I'd be making noise about this, both on and off camera. So what if I lose my job over it? Hell, I'm making these videos knowing full well I'm probably blowing any chance I have of ever getting back on that network. And Sandy went on to encourage the TYT staff to walk out in support of their trans comrades. But Benny and Sandy aren't the only LGBTQ plus people at the network that have left. After being a network partner since 2017, I officially left TYT on May 1st of this year. And I think you all know why. I never stated why, but you all know why. It was because of this term that they've made recently. And as you all know, leaving TYT was an absolute nightmare for me. I lost monetization for over a month, but I just couldn't be part of a network that doesn't value my community. And all three of us have tried to inform them on being better allies, but none of those attempts have been successful. All of us have failed. So we're here. That's three LGBTQ plus people that TYT lost within the span of a couple of months. So the question is, how many LGBTQ plus people are even left at TYT? How comfortable are those remaining LGBTQ plus employees in the face of all of this? I mean, they've got to feel really uncomfortable now. You know, Jankin and Anna love to scold idiot trans activists over optics, but have they considered the optics of this crisis that they've created? How the supposed home of progressives lost multiple LGBTQ plus affiliates in just a couple of months because of their rhetoric, because of their refusal to listen to anything that we have to say because they just disregard our input, even if it comes from a good place, even if they've known at least me, for example, for years. I mean, if that doesn't trigger introspection, literally nothing will. Now, to those not plugged in to the discourse, let me give you some additional context. So elements of TYT's coverage has become increasingly reactionary, not just this year, not just with regard to the trans issue, but more broadly speaking. And that's not to characterize the totality of their content, but they have gotten noticeably more reactionary, ranging from their coverage of crime to homelessness to Jank's endorsement of a right-wing billionaire who tried to buy the Los Angeles mayoral race after leading the charge against money in politics for years. It all is very out of character, seemingly for them. But the straw that broke the camel's back was this irrational tweet by Annika Sperian where she demanded to not be called a birthing person. People like myself responded asking who called her that and explained that this type of inclusive language is only used in very specific legal or clinical settings. She then doubled down weeks later, specifically in an attack against my leftist mafia co-host, and she laughed off the quote meltdowns over that tweet. Now I'm not gonna rehash that discourse because we've already talked about it at length on the leftist mafia, and I've talked about it on this channel. I posted a video about that, I'll link to it down below if you wanna watch that. But leftists and colleagues tried to delicately explain to both Anna and Jank who defended her at the time that fixating and hyper-focusing on these insignificant issues, it just lends credence to the rights claim that trans people and their allies are unreasonable. And we even explained how as cis allies ourselves, we've made mistakes that we've had to correct. I explained how purposefully misgendering transphobes is not a good look. That's not how trans people want me to advocate for them. Lance from the surface, my leftist mafia co-host has explained how trans people have talked to him about particular jokes that he shouldn't be making as a cis person. So we try to go above and beyond to explain how we've been in this predicament as well, whereas allies, we didn't do the best, but we had to course correct. So that way they realized that it's not an attack on them, it's just we're trying to do better in our advocacy. But that didn't really make a difference. After going out of our way to be charitable, Anna Kasperian accused the leftist mafia of gaslighting her on this issue, which is odd considering the fact that she made this exact point that we all made about inclusive language eight months prior in a video where Josh Hawley was criticizing Professor Kiara Bridges for using the term people with the capacity for pregnancy. So was she gaslighting herself or what? Like it just, it doesn't make sense, right? To say that we were gaslighting as bizarre and just to be extra sure that I didn't say anything that I regret, I went back and watched our episode, our first episode where we talked about this and we were all incredibly kind, but yet despite the use of our kid gloves, they've only gotten worse. They didn't listen to anything we had to say and they've gotten much worse. And there's a lot of clips floating around on the internet that people are reacting to and we're not gonna watch all of them, there's a lot, but I just, I wanna point out a couple of examples here to demonstrate what I mean and why I feel like at this point, they may be just too far gone and I'm done trying to educate them. If clearly they're not even coming from a position of good faith any longer, right? So one example is Anna and Cenk talking about a MAGA chuds motivation for something that he said and listened specifically to one of the things that Anna says. What are your values that Donald Trump shares with you then? Parents in control of their children, you know, being able to make choices for your family. America's being assaulted, open borders. You know all the issues, we all know the issues. He has our values, does he? What is, what's your values? I mean, you don't mean family values. He's raw dogging porn stars and they're like, and he says terrible things, does terrible things. You don't mean family values. So what values are you talking about? Oh, he believes in putting parents in charge of children. That means I don't like gay people. I'm sorry, that's what it means. That means he wants to be able to make a decision or help. He doesn't want schools making decisions for his kids. About gay people and racism, right? He doesn't want racism taught. Those are the two issues, Anna. Those are the two issues in the schools. Those are not the two issues, okay? Okay, one of the issues that you're totally downplaying right now, not even mentioning, is that some school districts want to, let's say a student comes out and identifies as transgender. School districts want to support that student and help him or her through that transition without ever having to notify the parents. I think there are issues there. And I do not begrudge parents for being concerned about that. Anna, I agree with you. But you're finding a sliver of an issue. That guy's not talking, he doesn't even know that. And when you ask him about the issues, they always go to. I don't like Latinos, I mean immigrants. I don't like gay people. I mean, I want parental control in schools. So that's the reality, you can see it all over the tapes. That is your interpretation, none of that was actually said. It is what you have taken out of his statements there. You're right. See, I find that clip interesting because you can see Anna bend over backwards to be overly charitable towards the MAGA chud, but for some reason, she can't extend that same level of charitable towards trans people and their allies who reached out in good faith to explain to her why her rhetoric has been harmful as of late. See, when it comes to MAGA chuds, we've got to try to interpret what they're saying in the most charitable way imaginable, but when it comes to allies of trans people and trans people, well, they're attacking me. Haven't you seen my record? It's just ridiculous. But that's not why I wanted to play the video. So when they're speculating about what this conservative means by parents in control of their children, Anna ascribes good intentions, good intentions to him by suggesting that he's probably talking about school districts who support and help students through their transitions, right? Without ever notifying parents. Now, she says that there's an issue with that. Now, let me be very clear. First and foremost, teachers cannot consent to gender affirming care on behalf of parents. Parents have to give consent in order for minors to receive gender affirming care. Second of all, protecting a child's identity is crucial because there are many LGBTQ plus kids who become homeless after getting rejected by unsupportive parents. Some school districts purposefully do not out kids to parents because of that very reason. They could literally endanger their lives. So why am I having to explain this to Anna Kasparian, who is a 17 year veteran? Do you think that she doesn't know this? Leaving out that crucial context is incredibly damaging because it suggests that teachers are doing some nefarious thing by simply affirming the identities of their students. Anna is a very smart woman, right? She's well aware of that. She's well aware of that. But she chose to not include that in her discussion. But there's more because she has defended anti-trans propagandist, Jesse Single, saying Jesse Single is not a transphobe at all. They just want to suppress anything that questions the safety of puberty blockers and cross-sex hormones for minors. It's pretty disgusting to say the least. And I'm glad that their efforts to destroy his career hasn't worked. Now it's evident that she's been watching a lot of right wing media because cross-sex hormones is a dog whistle that the right uses, right? It's words that they use because it primes you to think about HRT in a more negative way. Cross-sex hormones sounds a lot more scary than HRT, which sounds banal. So they use this language purposefully and Anna maybe intentionally or unintentionally, she's now using their exact words, but that's not even the real problem here with that. Putting aside Jesse Single for a moment, who is she referring to? Who's they? Who's trying to suppress this information? Clinics who literally offer gender-affirming care to minors, they detail the potential risks. Parents know about this before confirming that they want their kids to get gender-affirming care. If you don't believe me, test it out, look it up. I'll do it for you, in fact. The St. Louis Children's Hospital, for example, lists short and long-term side effects of puberty blockers. They do the same for hormone replacement therapy and include information about how it may affect fertility. So I'll ask again, who is suppressing this information, Anna? Before parents consent to any treatment, be it gender-affirming care or diabetes or cancer treatment, they are informed about the risks and the benefits, the pros and the cons. So who's trying to suppress this information? For the more Jesse Single, of all people, isn't being suppressed. In fact, his constant sensationalist fear mongering over the small amounts of detransitioners who exist was literally cited in a legal brief by Republican attorneys general to deny gender-affirming care. So his writing is influencing transphobic legal opinion, but yet people are trying to suppress him? It's just comical. But in addition to concern trolling about trans healthcare, TYT recently released a bizarre video where they talk about Trump attacking trans athletes and they go on to irrationally attack trans activists over the trans athlete issue, but not before trying to dig up minute examples to validate Trump's transphobic claim. You guys have to also understand we are in a bubble. We are in a severe bubble, right? Especially when it comes to this particular issue, because there is growing rage in the country in regard to the lack of fairness when it comes to some of these specific situations in which transgender athletes are included in these competitions. You're going to get upset about it, especially if you consider yourself or fancy yourself as an activist for the transgender community, you can go ahead and get mad about it. But you need to understand that there are people who do not see it as fair and it really depends on the specific situation. So as I mentioned earlier, right? We don't know exactly what he is referring to, but there are some prominent cases that have led to backlash that he could be talking about. So let's give you the examples. Stop right there. It is not your job to identify examples for Trump to validate his anti-trans argument. It is your job to explain to your audience how these anecdotes that you can find should not be used to justify discrimination. It is your job to educate your audience about how insignificant this issue is. There are approximately just 150 trans athletes in total in the United States, 100 at the college level and 50 about at the K through 12 level. I mean, in 2021, Associated Press, they reached out to dozens of GOP lawmakers who wrote legislation banning trans girls from high school sports and they asked for examples of trans athletes being disruptive and none of them could present any examples. But rather than approach it from that perspective and educate the audience about how the right is weaponizing this issue to gin up transphobia, Cenk and Anna proceeded to scold trans activists who defend trans athletes because they claim that this is a losing issue. This is not a winning issue for us. It is what it is. You do what you want with that information. Well, the advocates and activists for the transgender community would respond with, we don't care about the politics, right? We don't care about- Okay, but then they don't come. No, no, no, I gotta say it. Hold on, let me just finish my thought, Cenk. One second, okay, they'll say that. But okay, you don't care about the politics? Let's just, for once in your life, think strategically about what that means. That means that you're gonna continue pushing the Democratic Party to unequivocally support everything that the trans activists want, even if it's unpopular among the electorate. That means they're not getting reelected. That means they're gonna lose to Republicans. Republican lawmakers who are passing draconian, disgusting legislation in various states right now as we speak against the transgender community. So how does that make you win exactly? No, that is incredibly selfish of activists who are betraying their own community. Because when you say I don't care about elections, who cares about the Democrats? That isn't the point. The Republicans introduced over 600 bills against the LGBTQ community. That's because of elections and over 70 of them have already passed. When you say I don't care about winning, and I don't care about elections, what you're saying is I'm super selfish, leftist activist, and I'd like to build my cloud. But meanwhile, I'm willing to throw a trans people in the entire LGBTQ community under the bus, knowing that these bills are going to pass because we're laser focused on a losing issue. And by the way, you schmucks, you're falling exactly into the right wing trap. The Republicans, they tried everything. They tried anti-gay stuff, it didn't work. They tried trans bathrooms, you remember that? That didn't work. Kicking the transgender community out of the military, that didn't work. They drilled and drilled and drilled it until they finally found a little tiny nugget of like, hey, trans folks in competitive sports seems a little bit much. And you don't engage them in that fight. They lose on everything else. But idiot activists, yes, I just called you an idiot. Activists go in there and go, no, I'm going to fall right into that trap, and I'm going to fight on the only losing ground we have so we can elect more Republicans so they can pass more anti-LGBT laws. Great, well played. I'm sure your clout and your brand is doing great. That was genuinely unhinged for a number of reasons. First of all, I don't know who they're specifically referring to. I'm assuming that they're shadowboxing some caricature of a trans activist that they made up in their heads to be mad about. But I mean, I want to make it very, very clear. As a cis person, you do not get to dictate the terms that trans people fight on. They're the ones whose lives are in danger, whose rights are at stake. I think that they know better than you as cis people. Furthermore, even if you disagree with which issues they prioritize, it is absolutely fucking wild to accuse them of throwing their community under the bus if they don't see it ground to the right on particular issues. I mean, imagine them telling gay people that they can have gay marriage, but if they think that businesses shouldn't be allowed to discriminate because polling shows that people want that, well, they're throwing their own community under the bus. They're self-sabotaging. No, discrimination is wrong, period. And most people, I don't think, base their political positions on polling. We base it off of morality. But on top of that, they're just wrong. David will explain this eloquently in a recent video about how they're so wrong on the politics of this issue. Let's reiterate here, including 55% of Republicans saying that this is too much anti-trans, this is too much anti-trans legislation. This is too much. This polling finds that voters across all political parties see the Republican attempt to flood state legislatures with anti-LGBTQ plus legislation as political theater, said Aaron Thomas, a pollster at Data for Progress. It also shows that the ideas espoused by today's loudest anti-trans activists that trans people threaten children and that our identities are a woke invention don't resonate with the average voter. Again, this does not resonate with the average voter. This is amazing. I'm just gonna play this. I'm wondering if you think that DeSantis' very public, moron woke distracts from the message that you like about him. A little bit, I do. He did sign a law that restricts transgender care for adults as well as kids. I have greater concerns about the six-week abortion ban. Tell me about that. You know, I think if he made it clear that he's a state's rights person and that he's not looking to kind of pass a national law in this regard, I would be less concerned. This DeSantis voter is completely unfazed. She doesn't care about trans issues at all either way. She's focused in terms of what concerns her about DeSantis. She's more focused on abortion, which makes total sense. Exactly. And David's entire video is incredible. So I would recommend that you check it out. I'll link to that down below. But the point is raw polling data alone does not determine elections because people are so much more complex than that. They prioritize issues differently. So while Americans might support trans discrimination in sports, it is a less salient issue to them than say the economy or abortion. But even if it was the most salient issue and it was unpopular, the goal with our large platforms should be to change their minds, right? Or should we just count out to Republicans because that's some cuck shit. I say we try to use our platforms to change people's minds rather than just throwing up the white flag. And cis people, furthermore, do not get to demand that trans people tolerate some discrimination. If you're truly an ally, you make the case for them and try to change minds, not tell them to back down. You tell Republicans to back down. You scold Republicans, not them. Now, when I originally talked about that clip in the video that I uploaded about TYT originally on April 13th, I explained that the tone policing was not okay because they as cis people are trying to set the parameters as to what is and isn't respectable forms of protest when they don't get to do that. It's not their next on the line, it's trans people's next or on the line. But basically what TYT said was shouting down bigots and making them feel uncomfortable is unacceptable. But sitting quietly with the trans flag while the transphobe fearmongers about you, that is a form of protest that the young Turks is willing to tolerate. Well, what you're about to see is what I think is incredibly counterproductive for anyone who actually gives a damn about transgender rights in this country. Let's watch. Now, it's worth noting that there were trans rights activists in the room as she was giving her talk. And I want to show you what I think a productive protest looks like. Let's watch. And so I went to this convention. It was in January, it was in San Antonio. And so I go to the convention obviously not in support because the award was immediately meaningless. Get any more disruptive than that and you're going to be scolded to get back in line. But the reason why I'm bringing this up is not to rehash old shit, but it's necessary because Anna used that same example again to talk about an issue that she has with trans activists in a Twitter exchange with Juniper. Now, some of the tweets from Anna have since been deleted, but we can kind of piece together what was said and come away with an understanding of her problem with trans activists. So she presumably denounces the protest against Riley Gaines here, to which Juniper responds saying, not sure if you've noticed, but states are currently using violence against trans people, curious as to why you seem to care about the grifter who terrorizes trans people than trans people who are being affected by this legislation and violence. Anna replies saying, you don't watch the show, so you have no idea what I talk about or how often I defend the trans community. I think the fringe shit and activists like you turn the country against people. You're just too stupid to see it. Juniper responds saying, you intentionally misunderstood what I said, you moron, LOL, to which Anna responds saying, no, I didn't. You said barricading people you disagree with is nonviolent. If an alt-right group did that to a trans speaker, I'm sure you'd change your tune. You're dishonest, childish and bad shit crazy. Now let's just pause it right there because you can already see the problem with that. She's trying to frame right-wingers and trans people as if they're on equal ground when that's not the case. One of them is a marginalized community who was under attack and the other is a political group that is trying to attack said community. But at some point, Anna made this tweet which she ended up deleting for obvious reasons, but she says the civil rights movement did not use the same strategies as the trans movement. They didn't barricade speakers they disagreed with in a classroom for three hours. They persuaded through nonviolence and showing America their humanity. Wow. So yeah, needless to say, I understand why she chose to delete that tweet because it's quite the doozy. It is quite the take. Oof level is very, very high. Now that tweet is wrong because it's a historical and also trans people have chosen like the civil rights movement to show people their humanity. You're just choosing to not see it in this instance, right? You're choosing to sympathize with the humanity of the bigot as opposed to the trans activists who are rightfully anchored at what she's saying and what she's advocating for. See, you don't have to, believe it or not, sympathize with the bigot who's feeling discomfort for going on a propaganda tour demonizing this entire community. In the same way though that she tried to sympathize with the maggot shut in her argument with Jenk, she chose to put herself in the shoes of the bigot instead of the trans activists, right? And rather than trying to understand why they would be angry, she's tone policing them. Rather than seeing that their anger might be justified because they're under attack, she's saying, don't do it this way. Do it my way. Again, it is not the responsibility of trans activists or any trans person to cuddle bigots and make them feel comfortable, especially when their rights and lives are at stake. Stonewall was a riot. Lesbians disrupted feminist meetings to demand inclusion. Anita Bryant got a fucking pie to the face. I mean, if the young Turks were around back then I could honestly see them tone policing gay activists who did that and saying, oh, this is bad, you're going too far. I mean, look, J.K. Rowling has also denounced the tactics of radical trans activists because their advocacy for themselves makes her feel uncomfortable. Now, where does that stem from? Transphobia, because they are forcing people to see their humanity and how unjustified their exclusion from society is. So I'll ask TYT, is it civil rights that you care more about or is it the comfort of bigots? Because you have to pick because either way, I promise you, however trans people choose to advocate for themselves, it's going to make bigots uncomfortable. It's going to be deemed inappropriate because the tactics aren't really the issue here, right? They know this. The fact that they have the audacity to dare demand equality and stand up for themselves in the first place when society wants them to go back into the closet is the real issue. But in conclusion, let me just say here that what TYT is doing is profoundly dangerous and they know what they're doing. Jank and Anna have both been in the game way longer than me and they know exactly the impact that they are going to have with this level of discourse, right? They know that using specific anecdotes of marginalized people, saying or doing something that they disapprove of is a dangerous game, right? Because this is what Republicans do. This is what they do to validate discrimination. They say, hey, this one trans person or gay person did something bad, aren't they so unreasonable? Shouldn't we deny them rights? This is how you get people to engage in transphobia because if they buy into the premise that trans people as a whole are wrong about issue X, they're more likely to be open to discrimination, broadly speaking, right? And I don't care what TYT's intent is. I really don't. I don't care about their catalog of pro-trans videos. In fact, you can argue that that makes it worse because again, they have a very large liberal and left-leaning audience that isn't going to listen to what the Daily Wire has to say about trans people. But if Jankin and Anna say that these trans activists are so unreasonable, their audience might actually be susceptible to that, right? And I don't even have to warn Jankin and Anna how the right is going to weaponize their grievance against trans activists as further proof that the entire community is unreasonable because they've already done that. My polite disagreement with Anna over the birthing person shit was literally quoted in Fox News as evidence that trans activists are unreasonable and no disagreement at all is allowed when all I simply tried to do was engage in good faith. Have a conversation. Furthermore, they have a massive, massive, massive audience, right? Saying something incorrect or making a hyperbolic statement about an entire group of people, I mean, that has consequences. And let me just say this. As a gay man, this is not the first time where I've had to confront supposed allies about them being bad allies, right? I think that if you're a queer person, you've absolutely met an ally once or twice whose support is fickle and conditional. But here's the thing, they're never going to be there for you when you need them the most. So those types of allies just disregard them. Perhaps they'll support you passively and offer kind words once in a while, but that's the extent of their support. You know the kind of allies I'm talking about, right? The ones who will say, oh, I have no problem with gay people. I support the sinner, not the sin. Or the ones who'll say that they love LGBTQ plus people and have an LGBTQ plus friend or family member, but yet they vote Republican every single election cycle, those types of allies. Those are the allies that are just worthless in my opinion, right? They're not gonna be my number one enemy, but certainly they're not gonna be somebody who I spend much time with. There's a difference between those kinds of allies and the allies who assured me when I came out or more specifically when I was outed to everyone that they're going to protect me and literally put their bodies on the line to stop physical harm from coming my way because I was afraid that that would happen when a homophobic family member was sitting ominously in their car for hours across the street from my house. I was wondering, oh my God, am I gonna get attacked by a baseball bat? The people who assured me that no harm will come my way, that's the kind of allies we deserve, right? And I've talked about my experience in a coming out video. I'll link to that down below if you wanna learn more. The point is that you deserve that kind of an ally. You deserve the allies who are willing to put aside their own comfort to confront bigots and make them feel uncomfortable so you don't have to. You deserve the type of ally who's going to put their necks on the line to save you from harm or discrimination. So what I'm trying to say ultimately is you deserve better than TYT. If they're going to apply terms and conditions to their support for trans people or trans activists, it doesn't make the trans people unreasonable to tell them to go fuck themselves. They're the ones being unreasonable. And look, you can be disappointed. I personally am disappointed. I've watched TYT since 2008 when George W. Bush was still president. And I've been a network partner since 2017, up until May of this year. There's been periods where I disagree with them and didn't like some things that they said about particular issues, but I still never would have expected this, this level of vitriol towards trans activists. But regardless of their intent or how they got here, that doesn't matter anymore. What matters is that they're here now. In the same way I've had to cut out cancerous family members, I'm cutting out TYT from my media diet. Because if the so-called home of progressives tries to make you feel like shit for standing up for yourself in the face of discrimination and possibly elimination, I promise you, you don't need them in your life. You don't. You deserve better. Trans people deserve better. You can find better allies than that. So I'll tell TYT the same thing that I've told family members that you tried to make me feel bad for shoving my gayness down their throats or advocating for myself too much or too loudly. Go fuck yourself. to be be