A conservative commentator, Michael Knowles, calls for the eradication of transgender people at the University of Buffalo s auditorium. Students and community members protest the speech, calling it a call for genocide. My producer tries to find out why so many people seem hell-bent on keeping him out.
00:00:58.740Um, there is a extremist speaker that is speaking at UB tonight.
00:01:04.060I have some, like, transgender friends, and they were really hurt by, like, a lot of the news and, like, a lot of, like, what was happening.
00:01:12.280I wanted to, like, stand with my community.
00:01:15.500I think you just perpetuate hate towards lots of people that don't deserve it.
00:01:19.160Oh, I'm sorry you feel that way, but I think you're mistaken.
00:01:21.900This many people are here because they don't believe in that hate. They don't want to continue the hate.
00:01:25.920We're here because we want to drown out the noise that he's making.
00:01:28.460Have you ever, uh, watched one of Michael Knowles' speeches or seen his show in its entirety, not just, like, one of the clips?
00:01:34.020I have not, no. I don't need to, though.
00:01:36.680College students are often uninformed. That's why they're in college. They're supposed to get educated.
00:01:41.560But it seems they all had the same reason for hating me specifically.
00:01:45.980For the good of society, and especially for the good of the poor people who have fallen prey to this confusion, transgenderism must be eradicated from public life entirely.
00:01:58.080I have seen some of his comments about the trans community specifically.
00:02:01.920Saying that trans people should be eradicated from our communities.
00:02:05.160You shouldn't be saying that they should be eradicated if you have never been in their shoes.
00:02:09.380Can I just tell you we're not going to f***ing eradicate anyone! F*** you guys!
00:02:14.180I don't want to eradicate anybody either.
00:04:51.780You know, it could be taken into different things, like to destroy and everything like that, and to get rid of, which I think that's where you were going with.
00:05:04.400I have some, like, transgender friends, and they were really hurt by, like, a lot of the news and, like, a lot of, like, what was happening.
00:05:13.000I wanted to, like, stand with my community.
00:05:15.980My argument is not, as some newspapers very irresponsibly reported, that I want to, you know, exterminate people or something.
00:05:21.920But my argument is that this whole idea of transgenderism is pretty new.
00:05:26.920You both have friends who identify in this way.
00:05:29.200There are many more people, right, who say, I am transgender.
00:05:32.060And so my question is, why are so many more people saying that now?
00:05:37.040You said that, like, this, like, being transgender is this new ideology.
00:07:18.880Why there's so many spikes in, like, people saying that they're transgender is because people are much more comfortable now, like, going out and saying that they're, like, transgender because they know that there now is, like, that community that will accept them.
00:07:34.680What if they're not really comfortable, though?
00:07:36.480There's a guy who pioneered the transgender surgery at Johns Hopkins.
00:09:12.800Well, I would hope that the likelihood of that happening would be greatly diminished because I would not be raising them in a culture that would encourage it.
00:09:21.700And so we do see, even if you think that there is a biological component to this gender identity ideology, we do see that in communities and ages that are more encouraging of it, you see the numbers of gender identity cases skyrocket.
00:09:35.400So I think the fact that we're raising our children in a more traditional kind of environment would at least reduce the possibility.
00:09:42.660More than one in five Zoomers identifies as LGBTQ+.
00:09:46.040That's about a tenfold increase over the general population.
00:09:55.780One in five people is just born that way.
00:09:58.340You don't think there's any social contagion?
00:09:59.940I, again, can't cite the exact source.
00:10:03.200In my biology class, here in this school, we learned that there are some biological indicators for gay men.
00:10:10.320They have a smaller gland in their brain that shows up on scans.
00:10:14.240Even if that were the case, that wouldn't change the way that we necessarily ought to behave.
00:10:21.240The way that we are born does not imply that we are slaves to our nature.
00:10:25.380Because human beings, unlike the lower animals, have intellect and will.
00:10:29.920And so because we have a rational will, we can actually curb some of our appetites and bring them into accord with our rational will, which is conscious.
00:10:36.880Let's say, God forbid, that my kid has any problems.
00:10:40.660One of which is he struggles with his view of sex or gender.
00:10:44.280Probably what I would tell him is, hey, love you, buddy, you know, but this is reality.
00:10:50.660And so I would try to ballast my kids or any loved one that I have in the truth.
00:10:55.900Because there's a great quote from C.S. Lewis on this.
00:10:57.940He says, if you look for truth, you might find comfort in the end.
00:11:02.400But if you look for comfort, you will find neither truth nor comfort, only soft soap and wishful thinking to begin.
00:11:26.820What if you're wrong about being straight?
00:11:29.060I guess I would still behave as though I were straight.
00:11:31.220My view of sex and gender is that our true sexuality and our true gender is not from some deeply hidden and authentic appetite that might be invisible to the public, but is actually prescribed according to our human nature.
00:11:44.640But who are you to tell people that they're wrong?
00:11:47.020Well, I'm a man with reason and a moral conscience.
00:12:28.020Some people are there from the crimes.
00:12:29.720Well, there was a pretty prominent crime in Loudoun County where a high school student who wore skirts and identified as gender ambiguous would go into the girls' room and he raped two girls at two different schools.
00:12:40.800And it was covered up because of the transgender ideology.
00:12:51.840I'm not opposed to transgenderism because I think some individual who thinks he's transgender is a really rotten fella.
00:12:56.480In fact, I'm only opposed to transgenderism because of the general fact that a man can't become a woman and a woman can't become a man because I can know that to be true.
00:13:04.380And if I can't know that to be true objectively, then I can't really know much of anything at all, right?
00:13:08.700But they choose, you know, to go through those transformations in order to, like, feel like their soul and their body actually, like, resonate.
00:13:18.760So is the idea that your true identity is your soul and your body is only incidental to that?
00:13:26.460That, you know, because to even say your true identity, I think, well, your true identity has got something to do with your body, I think.
00:13:32.680I don't think your true identity has nothing to do with your body, right?
00:13:53.140Because, you know, the Catholic idea is, yes, of course, we are souls in part, but we are also bodies and that our bodies and souls have a lot to do with one another and they're inseparable.
00:14:03.240So, you know, the Catholic idea would be to say that your soul is contradicting your body.
00:14:08.660That wouldn't, you could, that wouldn't, that would not go along with the Catholic idea.
00:14:12.040And it's very interesting that there's this new, maybe religious view, which is that, no, our bodies, that's not, has nothing to do with our true selves.
00:14:20.040That view is called Gnosticism, Gnostic dualism, that we're really our souls and the body is evil or something like that.
00:14:26.320But I just wonder, how do we know that's true?
00:14:28.620How do you know that you're not really, at least in part, your body?
00:14:32.800They always say mind over body, you know?
00:14:36.280You know, because your brain, you know, it's the thing that controls, like, everything, you know?
00:14:44.500Like, sends off, like, these signals and...