Video News Clips: In Their Own Words

‘They/Them Pronouns Actually’: Townhall Attendee Tells CNN’s Anderson Cooper He Misgendered Her On-Air

[Screenshot/CNN]

A woman attending a town hall event with independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders told CNN’s Anderson Cooper on Wednesday that he misgendered her by not referring to her with “they/them” pronouns.

Cooper introduced female civil rights attorney Grace Thomas as the next in line to ask Sanders a question during the town hall. Thomas told the CNN host that she identifies herself with “they/them” pronouns, appearing to assume Cooper should have known her preferred pronouns.

“I want to introduce Grace Thomas, she’s a local civil rights attorney. She’s a Democrat, right?” Cooper said.

“They/them pronouns, actually, thank you,” Thomas said, without answering whether or not she is a Democrat.

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CNN has played along with transgender ideology and preferred pronouns. In July 2023, CNN’s Kate Bolduan issued an on-air apology to internet influencer Dylan Mulvaney, a trans-identifying male, for using the so-called “wrong pronoun” in a previous segment. The network invited Democratic state Rep. Leigh Finke of Minnesota, a male who identifies as a female, to tell them that he had a “very hard week” because of President Donald Trump’s executive order on pronouns.

Trump signed an executive order on Jan. 20 directing the federal government to only recognize two sexes, male and female, and reverse the spread of gender ideology that occurred under former President Joe Biden’s administration. He signed a separate executive order on Feb. 5 to prohibit biological men from competing in women’s sports, which has received widespread support from Americans.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Wednesday that the administration ignores any reporters with pronouns in their emails, saying they cannot be trusted to write a good story if they cannot acknowledge basic biology.

Most Americans, including teenagers, believe that a person’s gender is determined by their biological sex. A Pew Research poll from January found that 69% of teenagers and 65% of adults believe that “whether someone is a man or a woman is determined by the sex they were assigned at birth.” The poll further found that 54% of adult and 50% of teenagers are “uncomfortable” with gender-neutral pronouns.

A national poll by the Purdue Policy Research Institute (PPRI) from June 2023 also found that 65% of all Americans believe there are two genders.

The Department of Education found that Maine violated civil rights laws by continuing to allow men to compete in women’s sports, leading the administration to revoke funding for the state’s schools. A poll released on March 31 from the University of New Hampshire found that a majority of Maine residents want men to be banned from competing in women’s sports.