As conservative Catholic Daily Wire podcaster Michael Knowles took the podium at the University of Pittsburgh Tuesday night, protesters chanted, “Trans rights are human rights!”
About to make his initial remarks at a debate titled “Should Transgenderism Be Regulated by Law?” Knowles took the shouts in his stride.
“That sounds like they’ve gotten into harmony!” he said. “It’s not even just melody anymore! Alright!”
The sound of the chant soon hushed, and Knowles thanked the campus police for removing the disruptors.
Pitt’s College Republicans worked with the nonprofit Intercollegiate Studies Institute to organize the debate, which fringe-left elements attempted to shut down. Over 11,600 people signed a petition calling for a cancellation. State Representatives Jessica Benham (D-Carrick) and Malcolm Kenyatta (D-Philadelphia), who co-chair the State House LGBTQ+ Equality Caucus, declared they wanted the taxpayer-funded university to cancel the debate, calling Knowles’s traditional sentiment “hate speech.”
And earlier this month, transgendered economist Deirdre Nansen McCloskey pulled out of the event, then envisioned to discuss the merits of self-declared gender identity.
“Despite three degrees from Harvard, he could not defend transgender ideology,” Knowles said. “He knew my views, we had chatted about them, he repeatedly expressed his desire to debate, then, at the last minute, he withdrew because, I suspect, he felt it more prudent to concede than lose in front of C-SPAN’s cameras. Even a distinguished scholar could not defend the indefensible.”
Libertarian commentator Brad Polumbo, who, unlike McCloskey, considers gender unchangeable, agreed to take the economist’s place and argue his own view that government should avoid weighing in on the decisions of gender dysphoric individuals whenever possible. Leah Libresco Sargeant, author of the right-leaning Substack publication Other Feminisms, moderated.
While Polumbo’s earlier utterances about Knowles on the former’s podcast and webzine Based Politics make clear he doesn’t think much of the social conservatism Knowles espouses, he told attendees he thinks at least as little of those who wanted the event nixed.
“I would like to say to the people outside — or inside — who are not just interested in having their voices heard but trying to shut down this debate: Grow the hell up,” he said. “The debate is happening whether you like it or not; it’s your choice to participate in it or bury your head in the sand. This is America, we have free speech and I just don’t really stand for anybody who would try to shut down the voices they disagree with rather than engage with them.”
Polumbo dissents from much progressive ideology when it comes to gender. He doesn’t support transgender surgery for children nor does he back biological men joining women athletic teams. He does, however, support allowing transgender people to use bathrooms other than those designated for their biological sex and wants male criminals who have made efforts to resemble women to be imprisoned with females.
Knowles’ said his views on regulation of transgenderism reflect a reality that it is inevitable: Government must make a decision when it comes to how those identifying as the opposite of their biological sex fit into the Armed Forces, education, sports, and so on.
“The law must pick a side,” he said. “There is no neutrality. Unlike some other political issues, there can be no middle ground: Either women get their own bathrooms or they don’t; either women have rights and legal protections as women, as they always have, or they don’t.”
Polumbo objected to what he felt was Knowles’ heavy-handed position, as expressed in an earlier statement that America should “eradicate transgenderism from public life.” While Polumbo clarified that his opponent did not, as some have lied, called for violence against anybody, he did note that Knowles wants transgender surgery and medical treatments prohibited for anyone.
Knowles said he objected to gender transition operations because they can be physically and mentally harmful. Polumbo responded that he views the matter in terms of personal autonomy and the doctor-patient relationship.
“Whether you agree with it or not, it is the case that most doctors, most medical authorities, most medical bodies do recommend transition for adults with persistent gender dysphoria,” he said. “So I don’t view it as my place or our place to get in the way of that relationship. If that’s what they want to do, if that’s what will make them happy, who are we to second-guess it? Who are we to tell them how to live their lives?”
In concluding remarks, Knowles treated the matter as one of import to societal cohesion.
“We have two options: embrace transgender anthropology, which is to deny the natural distinction between men and women, or restore the understanding of sex that accords with reason and reality and which civilization has embraced for all of history,” he said. “Not a tough choice to me.”
Polumbo also insisted a binary choice is apparent, albeit a different one.
“Do we want to be a pluralistic and classically liberal society where people of different beliefs and values can live side by side or do we want to fight in an ever intensifying struggle, a tug of war over the state to be used to crush minority viewpoints and force conformity, force people to live how others see fit?”
Polumbo suggested that those objecting to transgenderism don’t even have a chance to realize their agenda in a representative democracy, citing polling showing that fewer than one-third of Americans consider themselves social conservatives.
“If we want to start having the majority-rules approach of suppressing lifestyles you don’t approve of, of shutting down ideas, of banning lifestyles that aren’t in alignment with your values, that is not going to go well for my friends on the religious right,” Polumbo said.
Despite the controversy that preceded the event, ISI President John A. Burtka IV said it demonstrated how important it is to weigh such a contentious subject publicly.
“We believe that that’s a signal that there’s more that needs to be explored on this topic and it touches a nerve in terms of the life in common here at the Pitt community,” he said. “It touches a nerve because it’s a conversation ultimately about human nature: What does it mean to be a man or a woman according to biology, to culture, to history and to religion and how should law and public policy reflect those realities?”
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Bradley Vasoli is managing editor of The Pennsylvania Daily Star. Follow Brad on Twitter at @BVasoli. Email tips to [email protected].
Photo “Michael Knowles and Brad Polumbo” by Intercollegiate Studies Institute.
