There’s been no shortage of discussion points around the Senate confirmation hearings for Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination to the Supreme Court, and one of the big ones on Tuesday was Barrett’s repeated use of the term “sexual preference,” which is an antiquated and inaccurate way of describing a person’s sexual orientation. Tucker Carlson responded to this topic with both a homophobic and transphobic joke.
“So what happened today? Well, today was the Democrats’ first opportunity to question the nominee. Amy Coney Barrett appears virtually certain to get the job and replace Ruth Bader Ginsburg on the court,” Tucker said to begin the second segment of his Fox News show Tuesday night.
“We could go into detail about what happened today, excruciating detail — you’ve probably seen a lot of the coverage already. But if you really want an overview, if you want to understand the essence of what happened, we found a single clip that sums it up. As you’d expect, it comes from Hawaii Senator Mazie Hirono.”
“Tucker Carlson Tonight” then pulled up a clip of Sen. Hirono calling Barrett out for using the term “sexual preference” multiple times during the hearings.
“Not once but twice you use the term ‘sexual preference’ to describe those in the LGBTQ community,” Sen. Hirono said before explaining why that term is so problematic. “And let me make clear, ‘sexual preference’ is an offensive and outdated term. It is used by anti-LGBTQ activists to suggest that sexual orientation is a choice. It is not. Sexual orientation is a key part of a person’s identity.”
Apparently by this whole thing, Tucker replied to the clip with transphobic and homophobic comments.
“Uh huh. So follow the ‘reasoning,’ if you will,” Tucker said, as he made air quotes with his fingers. “According to Mazie Hirono, you can choose your gender at will, because there’s an infinite number of genders to choose from. But you have absolutely no say in who you find attractive, and suggesting otherwise it’s just offensive. Sexual preferences are fixed in stone, bigot, and by the way put on your mask.This message has been brought to you by the party of science.”
Tucker’s joke here is transphobic because, as Sen. Hirono says in her objection to the term “sexual preference,” Tucker is implying that folks who are transgender, gender-fluid and non-binary have made conscious decisions to adopt those identities. This is in opposition to the reality that, as Amit Paley, CEO and executive director of The Trevor Project, has described it, “Your sex is what you are assigned at birth, and your gender is the way that you experience your own sense of gender identity.”
Then, to finish this thought, Tucker made an unrelated odd quip about Sen. Hirono.
“By the way, why does Mazie Hirono represent Hawaii? In a fair world, why wouldn’t Tulsi Gabbard be the monarch of that state? Mull that,” Carlson said.
You can watch the quoted portion of Tuesday’s episode of “Tucker Carlson Tonight” in the clip embedded up at the top of this article.
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