Jon Stewart Takes Down Arkansas Transphobic Policies in Season 2 of "The Problem with Jon Stewart

“Why would the state of Arkansas step in to override parents, physicians, psychiatrists, endocrinologists, who have developed guidelines?” Stewart asks Rutledge. “Why would you override those guidelines?”

Although Rutledge tries to tell the host that there is an expert disputing the necessity of transition-related care for minors for every expert who endorses such care, Stewart was not having it.

“But you know that’s not true,” he said. Indeed, every major medical establishment has guidelines for age-appropriate gender-related care. Additionally, a 2018 content review conducted by researchers at Cornell University found that 93% of studies conducted in the past 25 years found that transition had overwhelmingly positive mental health outcomes.

Rutledge even tried to tell Stewart that 98% of young people with gender dysphoria are “able to move past that once they have the help they need,” to which Stewart responded, “Wow! That’s an incredibly made-up figure.” Although he kept asking her about the medical associations that Arkansas got its “evidence” from, Rutledge was unable to name any — likely because they don’t exist.

In a particularly sharp parallel, Stewart tried to demonstrate the insanity of banning transition-related care for minors by asking Rutledge if she would also decry the advice of the mainstream medical establishment if her child was diagnosed with pediatric cancer. Although she claimed this was an extreme example and seemed to take offense as someone with friends who had children die of pediatric cancer, Stewart did not let up, informing her that there are also plenty of parents who have “lost children to suicide and depression” because they couldn’t access trans care.

Despite this, Rutledge would not stop claiming that Arkansas was interested in “protecting children.” As her “arguments” grew more and more incoherent, Stewart said, in the most memorable sound bite from the interview, “You’re making it sound like a nine-year-old walks into a doctor’s office and says, ‘Gimme some testosterone,’ and the doctor goes, ‘Oh, thank God, because we’re wanting to create an army of transgenders because we’re crazy.’”

Stewart is obviously not a journalist in a traditional sense, and he is definitely able to generate sound bites like that because he is a comedian. Pithy remarks aside, though, it says a lot that his quality of “reporting” here far outpaces that of many major media outlets.

That is to say, Stewart stuck to the facts, a feat that almost every major newspaper has proven incapable of doing when it comes to this one particular issue. Giving the mic to people who are spreading active disinformation is not actually a demonstration of egalitarianism; doing so is a disservice to readers, and more importantly, it’s an active danger to trans people.

“The War Over Gender” is available for free in full on Apple TV+’s website.

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