Tucker Carlson’s latest anti-trans rant sparks campaign to get Fox News banned
Fox News host Tucker Carlson. (Getty/ Chip Somodevilla)
An LGBTQ+ group has written an open letter calling for Fox News to be banned from Canadian cable networks after host Tucker Carlson’s “horrifying” anti-trans comments.
The open letter from Egale Canada criticises comments Carlson made after a mass shooting in Nashville, Tennessee in March, in which, they say, he painted the entire trans community as “violent and dangerous” after it emerged that the shooter was trans.
On an episode of Tucker Carlson Tonight shortly after the deadly school shooting – in which three children and three adults died – the Fox News host claimed that “the trans movement is targeting Christians, including with violence”.
Egale Canada has now filed a formal application with the Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications Commission (CRTC) to urge them to ban Tucker’s show, and Fox News, claiming its coverage “aimed to provoke hatred and violence against 2SLGBTQI communities”.
The letter reads: “This programming is in clear violation of Canadian broadcasting standards and has no place on Canadian broadcasting networks. Carlson made false and horrifying claims about 2STNBGN people, painting them as violent and dangerous.
“During the segment, Carlson made the inflammatory and false claim that trans people are ‘targeting’ Christians… to position trans people in existential opposition to Christianity is an incitement of violence against trans people that is plain to any viewer.”
The letter, from Egale Canada’s executive director, Helen Kennedy, also accused the segment of “stoking resentment” against the LGBTQ+ community through misinformation, “including that trans people are given preferential treatment in employment and other opportunities”.
Kennedy urged the CRTC to investigate whether Fox News violates Canada’s broadcasting standards, and asked the regulator to hold a public consultation on removing the Murdoch-family-owned station from the list of authorised channels.
“Given the rising levels of anti-trans hate around the world and the potential for segments like the one recently aired on Fox News, there needs to be a serious conversation about the broadcasting of Fox News in Canada,” the letter goes on to say.
Carlson has a long history of making anti-LGBTQ+ comments, including accusing United States transportation secretary Pete Buttigieg of lying about being gay, and describing healthcare officials providing gender-affirming care as “criminals”.
Last month, he described trans people carrying guns for self-defence, in light of attacks from hate groups, as “political hysteria”.
He was widely criticised for his remarks, having previously defended gun ownership, with Rolling Stone reporter Nikki McCann Ramirez branding the segment: “Irony found dead in a ditch.”
