Teenage pregnancy
In 2022,
left-leaning media watchdog group
Media Matters for America uncovered audio recordings from the 2010s that contained Walsh discussing
teenage pregnancy on the radio show
The Matt and Crank Program, saying that "the problem is not, per se, teenage pregnancy—it's unwed pregnancy", that "Girls between the ages of like 17 and 24 is when they're technically most fertile", and that society had only recently deemed being a teenager "too young to start a family".
[45] After receiving criticism for these comments, Walsh defended his monologue, arguing that he was trying to communicate an uncontroversial historical observation, that because "people married young and stayed married" teenage pregnancy wasn't considered an issue. He further argued that pregnancy out of wedlock is the core issue since it leaves the child "without a stable family structure in place to care for [them]."
[46] Walsh then declined to apologize, saying that "no-one gets canceled unless they consent to it, and they willingly play their assigned roles. Well, I do not consent, and I'm not going to play the game".
[47] LGBTQ Nation accused Walsh of hypocrisy for defending teenage pregnancies while opposing
transgender teenagers.
[45]
LGBT issues
Walsh is an outspoken opponent of the
LGBT movement, specifically the transgender community.
[8][48]
In June 2015, Walsh condemned the
U.S. Supreme Court case
Obergefell v. Hodges, which ruled that the
U.S. Constitution guaranteed the right to
marriage for
same-sex couples, arguing that "a union between two homosexuals is not, never has been, and never will be a legitimate marriage", while insinuating that the ruling will set marriage to become "an institution populated by all forms of depravity and corruption".
[49][50][
third-party source needed]
In February 2021, after a
Gallup poll showed a sharp increase of people who identify as
LGBT, especially
bisexual and
transgender, in
Generation Z compared to previous generations, Walsh accused "the media, Hollywood, and the school system" of
recruiting children into the LGBT community. Other commentators quoted by
PinkNews argued that Walsh was wrong, attributing the increase to different factors, including an easing of social stigmas among younger people.
[51]
Shortly after the
Russian invasion of Ukraine began on February 24, 2022, Walsh accused President
Joe Biden of
feminizing the
U.S. military and recruiting
lesbians who he said "can't do three pushups", and said that it was "not a coincidence that [Russia's invasion] happened after Biden spent his first year in office focusing primarily on
wokeness".
[52]
The New York Times columnist
Michelle Goldberg wrote that Walsh's commentary, as well as that of other right-wing commentators, have caused an increase of
anti-LGBT violence and sentiment in the United States.
[53] The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) described Walsh as one of the "peddlers of fear and disinformation about LGBTQ people" in the wake of the
Club Q mass shooting in November 2022.
[54] Walsh had previously said opposing all-age
drag events was like fighting cancer,
[30] and "just like cancer, stopping it is not a gentle or a painless process".
[53][55] Following the shooting, Walsh lambasted critics of his rhetoric as "soulless demons" and "evil to the core", accusing them of using the shooting to "blackmail us into accepting the castration and sexualization of children".
[56][57] He also rhetorically asked those on the left who felt that "the drag queen-child combination" would lead to "violent backlash" from right-wingers, "if it's causing this much chaos and violence, why do you insist on continuing to do it?"
[58][59] Jeet Heer from
The Nation described Walsh's comments, along with those of a few other right-wing figures, as "implicitly a threat. The right is trying to create a new
lynching culture, with LGBTQ people as the target."
[59]
Transgender issues
Walsh speaking at the 2022 AmericaFest in
Phoenix, Arizona
Walsh has repeatedly opposed the
transgender community,
[8] notably with his children's book
Johnny the Walrus,
[8] his documentary
What Is a Woman?,
[60] and campaigns involving hospitals and schools.
[9][61] Walsh and his campaigns are sometimes described as
anti-trans and
transphobic.
[23][62][63][26] Progressive magazine
The New Republic named Walsh "Transphobe of the Year" in 2022, saying he "has made a name for himself by demonizing medical professionals and pushing conspiracy theories about 'grooming' and pedophilia in the LGBTQ community".
[23] Walsh has referred to being transgender as a "delusion" and a "mental illness",
[64] and has compared giving
hormone treatments and
gender reassignment surgery for
transgender youth to
child molestation and
rape. In May 2021, Walsh called doctors who perform
gender-reassignment surgeries for
transgender youth "
Nazi scientist-evil", "pedophiles", and "plastic surgeons basically acting like
Leatherface from
The Texas Chain Saw Massacre".
[65][8] Walsh's views are in opposition to the stance of leading American medical groups, which have established guidelines to treat transgender youth; those groups and some research say that denying such care can lead to higher rates of suicide and other mental health issues.
[25][9]
Walsh rented an apartment in Virginia for one day in 2021 to qualify to speak out against the Loudoun County School Board for allowing transgender students the use of restrooms matching their gender identity.
[61] During his speech, which he later featured in his film
What is a Woman?, Walsh said: "You are all child abusers. You prey upon impressionable children and indoctrinate them into your insane ideological cult, a cult which holds many fanatical views but none so deranged as the idea that boys are girls and girls are boys."
[63]
In January 2022, Twitter suspended Walsh's account for 12 hours for tweets it deemed as hateful content against transgender people.
[66][
better source needed] In October 2022, after business magnate
Elon Musk acquired Twitter, Inc., Walsh encouraged his followers to
misgender transgender people, writing that "we have made huge strides against the trans agenda", and that the acquisition, which he called "the liberation of Twitter", will allow them to "ramp up our efforts even more".
[27]
In November 2022, Walsh was challenged as a guest on the podcast
The Joe Rogan Experience for suggesting that "maybe millions of kids" had been put onto
puberty blockers. Producer Jamie Vernon interjected and stated that only 4,780 children had been put on puberty blockers within the past five years. Walsh lowered his guess to "hundreds of thousands" and said he "could be wrong," adding, "who are you gonna trust when they're telling you the numbers?"
[22]
Johnny the Walrus
Main article:
Johnny the Walrus
On March 29, 2022,
DW Books published Walsh's children's book
Johnny the Walrus, which compares being trans to identifying as a
walrus.
[8]
LGBTQ Nation denounced the book, calling it "anti-transgender" and a mockery of transgender youth, while
PinkNews referred to it as "hateful" and "transphobic."
[67][68] Fox News host
Tucker Carlson called the book "hilarious".
[67] Conservative news website
TheBlaze called the book "an effort to push back against radical gender ideology which defies biological reality".
[68] The satirist
Andrew Doyle, writing in
UnHerd, praised the book for mocking the "indoctrination of the young".
[69] It was listed as the bestselling
LGBT+ book on
Amazon in December 2021 before Amazon recategorized it to Political and Social Commentary. Walsh called the recategorization "an unconscionable attack on gay rights and a horrific example of homophobia and gay erasure".
Target removed the book from its online bookstore on the same day.
[70]
What Is a Woman?
Main article:
What is a Woman?
Logo for 'What Is A Woman?'
Walsh's online documentary film
What is a Woman?, released by
The Daily Wire on June 1, 2022, at the beginning of
Pride Month, featured Walsh asking the question "what is a woman?" to various people, and arguing for his own views.
[76] Walsh had asked the same question in other appearances, including a
Dr. Phil show on January 19, 2022, with transgender and
non-binary people.
[77][78] On June 14, Walsh published a book based on the documentary, entitled
What is a Woman?: One Man's Journey to Answer the Question of a Generation through DW Books.
[79]
The documentary received a divided reception from critics and political commentators. Among those who praised it were Karol Markowicz of the
New York Post, who commended the documentary for "expos[ing] the lunacy of pro-trans extremism."
[80] Detractors, such as AJ Erkert of
Science-Based Medicine and Erin Rook of
LGBTQ Nation, denounced the film as "
propaganda," "transphobic lies," and "science denying." Erkert compared the documentary to the
antiscience films
Vaxxed and
Expelled.
[81][63]
Eventbrite banned screenings of the documentary due to the service not permitting content that promotes "hate, violence, or harassment towards others and/or oneself". Walsh denied that the documentary was
hate speech and criticized Eventbrite for permitting the screening of
drag shows that allow children in attendance.
[82]
In February 2022,
Eli Erlick, a
transgender activist, alleged that Walsh had invited dozens of people to participate in the documentary under false pretenses.
[83][60] Kataluna Enriquez,
Fallon Fox, and other transgender public figures corroborated the account. Walsh created a group called the Gender Unity Project, which the activists said attempted to lure them into participating in the film.
[60][84] The Gender Unity Project's Twitter account and website were taken down shortly after the allegations went public.
[85] Erlick claimed there were at least 50 other recruited interviewees, including a 14-year-old
transgender girl.
[85][86][62]
As a part of Walsh's
What is a Woman? college tour, he screened the documentary at
University of Houston on October 13, 2022, by invitation from
Young Conservatives of Texas. While 435 people attended, police estimated 400 protesters—including trans rights activists—as well as counter-protesters outside.
[26][87] A screening by Walsh at the
University of Wisconsin, sponsored mostly by
Young America's Foundation, was also met by protesters.
[88][64]
Campaign against Eli Erlick
In August 2022, Walsh accused transgender activist
Eli Erlick of being a "confessed drug dealer" targeting children because of a deleted
Instagram post in which she proposed sending surplus
hormone therapy prescriptions—including hundreds of doses of
testosterone,
estradiol, and
spironolactone—to transgender youth for free within states attempting to criminalize transgender health care for minors. Walsh reported her to the
University of California, Santa Cruz, where she was a
PhD candidate. When the university did not respond to Walsh's report within a day, he said it was "time to escalate" and shared the contact information of various leaders of the university, while threatening to further escalate to the Board of Trustees, the university's donors, and to organize a protest on campus if the university continued to not respond.
[89][10] The university said it "strongly supports transgender members of our community" and "takes allegations of illegal activity seriously, harassment included". Some conservative commentators reported Erlick to the
U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.
[10] Erlick never faced investigation.
[90][
third-party source needed]
Following Walsh's statements Erlick reported harassment on social media, including messages with anti-LGBT slurs and threats of physical violence. Erlick accused Walsh of "profiting from the moral panic over transness", "attacking free speech itself", and
stochastic terrorism, which is incitement of violence against a target through mass media with plausible deniability. Walsh denied that his actions constituted stochastic terrorism and argued that sharing public contact information is not harassment.
[10]
Campaigns against hospitals providing transgender health care
Further information:
Boston Children's Hospital § Harassment campaign against gender-affirming care, and
Vanderbilt University Medical Center § Transgender clinic
In 2022, Walsh campaigned against hospitals providing
transgender health care for youth.
[9][91] Boston Children's Hospital, one of the hospitals denounced by Walsh and other right-wing figures, reported harassment, death threats, and a hoax bomb threat in August 2022 that led to a woman's arrest in September.
[9][25][92]
In September 2022, Walsh made accusations against another hospital,
Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC), and its transgender clinic in
Nashville, Tennessee.
[93][9] The New Republic described accusations by Walsh as "cherry-picking informational content" and noted that Walsh had singled out doctors by name.
[91] Walsh said on his show that VUMC doctors "castrate" and "drug and mutilate" children.
[94] He said on Twitter that VUMC considered transgender health care a "money-maker", that it threatened "consequences" for medical staff who declined to provide care, and that it tried to "enforce compliance" from hesitant parents of transgender youth.
[93][9] Walsh criticized VUMC's "trans buddies" program and called its patient advocates "trans activists".
[95] Tennessee Governor Bill Lee and other Republicans in the state called for an investigation into the hospital.
[93][95] Walsh tweeted about meeting with Tennessee lawmakers on a bill to shut down the clinic.
[91] VUMC reported harassment and threats against its staff, and there were calls for murders and arrests of VUMC doctors in far-right groups on
Reddit and
4chan.
[9] Vanderbilt took down its webpage about the clinic and said that Walsh had "misrepresent[ed] facts about the care" it provides.
[9] On October 7, 2022, VUMC announced that it would pause gender-affirming surgeries for minors and review its practices.
[96] Since 2018, VUMC provided an average of five such surgeries to minors annually. All patients were over 16-years-old and obtained parental consent. None have received genital surgery.
[96]
Walsh spoke at a Nashville rally organized by
The Daily Wire called "The Rally to End Child Mutilation" on October 21, 2022, in opposition to transgender health care for minors. The rally, whose headline speakers included Tennessee Republican state senator
Jack Johnson and representative
William Lamberth,
United States Senator Marsha Blackburn, and former
United States Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard, drew between 1,500 and 3,000 people, including supporters and protesters.
[97][11]
Politicians
After South Dakota Governor
Kristi Noem permitted businesses to require a
COVID-19 vaccine for their employees, Walsh criticized her by writing that she was only considered a frontrunner for the
2024 United States presidential election because of her physical attractiveness.
[2] After Noem called his comment
misogynistic, Walsh said he had no regrets but would "accept apologies from all of the performative idiots pretending to be offended by it".
[98