Ahead of the highly promoted two hour interview airing on ABC tonight, speculation is swirling that former Olympic Champion Bruce Jenner will reveal to the world that he is indeed transitioning into a woman. This morning on radio, Glenn reacted to the publicity of the interview and explored some of the national conversation.
Glenn felt true compassion for Jenner, saying that if he really is transitioning into a woman, "if that's true, what a hell his life has been. What an absolute tormented hell his life has been."
Glenn expressed that we should not "clam up" about these topics, but talk openly about them as adults and try to understand it. But, even more important is that we need to remember to love. "We are commanded, as people of faith, to love, not necessarily endorse, but always love."
See more of Glenn's powerful response below. Glenn's full response is provided in the transcript below:
Rough Transcript Below:
GLENN: Could I ask if we can do something as adults, as Americans, that we just don't do anymore, and that is have an open and honest conversation about a really sensitive subject, without hating each other, without throwing stones at each other. Just ask some honest questions, and really try to understand one another. There's this superhyped Diane Sawyer interview everyone is waiting for tonight, I guess, Bruce Jenner. He was spotted the other day wearing a dress, smoking a cigarette, in a full length dress. Quite honestly, I don't care what Bruce Jenner does. It does not affect my life at all. So if Bruce Jenner wants to be a woman, he wants to dress as a woman, he wants to change his sexuality, doesn't matter to me. It doesn't matter to me.
I think people are fascinated by this story because back in 1976, was it? He was a decathlon athlete, one on the best on earth, won the gold medal. He was on the Wheaties box. He was a man's man. So I
guess now to see him wearing a dress, you're like what? What? Did he feel that way then? What's happened? And I hope that we're not sickly fascinated like he wants to wear a dress. I don't think we are. I think we are to a point where we've liked this guy in the past, and so we feel for him and we're like what happened to you.
STU: Trying to understand.
GLENN: I want to understand, but I don't know if we can question anymore. So I'm going to try to have a real, open, honest conversation with you about this and about transgendereddism. I don't pretend to understand it. I don't understand it. Maybe it's totally fine, maybe it's not. I don't know. I don't know. What frightens me is if you don't blindly embrace, not just accept it, if you don't blindly embrace it, you are vilified and destroyed, an I think this is dangerous. I would say that about anything, anything. It's not just transgendereddism. A good friend of mine, Keith Ablow, has almost been destroyed. He's a doctor, psychiatrist. A year or so ago, he wrote, I don't see anything but toxicity from the notion of a person with a female anatomy feeling free to use the urinal in a boy's restroom while a boy stand next to her and uses one too. Well, he was viciously attacked. He was called a quack and worse, and he's not. He is a good, decent man.
Because he dared say that there were two genders, he was torn to pieces. Honest question: Who is the science denier here? Are there two genders? Or is everything fluid? And can anyone really claim that the bathroom situation is not a legitimate concern? This is new territory for humankind. So we're taking -- we should be taking baby steps and not runs towards anything, because we don't know. And we want to make sure we don't hurt people along the way. Either those who want to be transgendered or those who do not want to be transgendered. We don't want to do damage either way.
But are you telling me we all have is just blindly accept and embrace a male using a female bathroom and a female using a male bathroom, and then just -- we're all just supposed to blindly accept no genders. There's just go genders. You are not allowed to see any difference between a man and a woman. Now, this is a conversation that we can have as adults, and we should have, and we have to have as adults. And this is the situation with Bruce Jenner. Like I said, it doesn't matter to me. What happens with me doesn't matter, because Bruce Jenner -- whatever, man. Whatever. I'm an adult, he's an adult. I'm worried about our children. And NBC now is running a series on transgendered children, a series on this. Children.
The one I saw was a seven-minute segment on the "NBC Nightly News", and it was about a 4-year-old. And he's gone from girl to boy. He's 5 now. And I mean this sincerely. This is not hyperbole and this is not just a rhetorical question: Are you sure this is the responsible thing for a parent to do; to all of a sudden say to your 4-year-old, you know what; you are a boy. You didn't like being a girl. You are a boy. Wear boy clothes, Tut your hair like a boy, we are changing your name. Everyone will treat you like a boy. Again, I'm not asking you with the answer. I'm asking you as a person that doesn't study this stuff. We all heard in the 1950s we shouldn't discipline our kid. We should tell them they are all winners. We should all give them trophies and ribbons, and we are seeing how that's turned out. All that advice was garbage. Can we slow down and really think? Because we are screwing with children.
And again, I'm not saying stop, because maybe it is the right thing to do. They said their son was uncomfortable being a girl starting at 2, so they went with that. Now, I'm a dad of four, and I will tell you your kids are born with their personality. They are born with their personality. Doesn't really matter. I mean, it does matter what you do as a parent, but there's some things your kids come out with and that's who they are. And they're that way forever, at least till 27.
That's as long as I can go. But they are who they are. So maybe -- I don't know, but in this segment, there was a heart-wrenching statement from the kid I want you to hear.
VOICE: If you talk to gay and lesbian adults, the vast majority will tell you they knew they were gay or lesbian when they were children, and gawking about a gay child would seem taboo or terrifying or bizarre. No longer. There are transgender children across the country. NBC's Kate Snow talked to one family about what it means to make a world accept that.
VOICE: Saying things like why did God make me this way? Why did God make me wrong? A child shouldn't have to live like that.
GLENN: So this is the question. God doesn't make anything wrong. He doesn't make anything wrong. If he was making mistakes, then he'd be a pretty crappy God. And I mean that -- again, I am not trying to be jokey about it. I mean that. He'd be a really lousy God, if it was like oh, man I really screwed that one up. He wouldn't be God, but in all this hysteria, the Bruce Jenner thing, the kids highlighted in NBC, can we even question this? Just as you can't have a religious viewpoint that's contrary to the feelings on home mock sexuality that we now have coming from the media, and from the elites, you can't have those anymore. You are shouted down, silenced, fired from whatever
job you had. Now, can you even say there are two genders, that there are male and female?
There are two genders, male and female, with the exception of 33 hundredth of 1% of births, you could be born a hermaphrodite. So now what does that mean? Did God make a mistake? Is there something beyond hermaphrodite that maybe the parts are parts, but something -- I don't even know. I don't know how it works, but there's something else inside the body that makes them feel like they're a boy or a girl when they're the opposite? Maybe. I don't know. But there's no such thing as gender neutral. Gender fluid, gender questioning, gender nonconforming, pangender, cisgender. Facebook identifies 51 separate genders. 51 separate genders. Another site lays claim to 63 different genders. I'm talking to you as an adult here. The way I was raised, you have a vagina or a penis, and that identifies you, okay? Now, do we have to open our eyes and say there's more to it? Maybe. Maybe we do, but can we please have it in a non-shout people down, calling people names kind of things? I'm not going to call someone a freak because they -- I'm not making fun of Bruce Jenner. I'm not going to shout him down, I'm not going to judge him. Don't judge others who say now wait a minute, wait a minute, is this right, especially when we are talking about children. Can we even ask these questions? This is going to be a real test. Can Glenn Beck get on his radio show and ask these questions in a humble way, really, truly seeking answers and asking the most important question, can we all have an adult conversation and not just jam this down everybody's throat, one way or the other. Can we have this and remain on the air?
Think of this. Bruce Jenner, we all thought was born a male. He thrived for 64 years as a male. He's now telling us he was born a woman, living inside of a male. Well, if that's true, what a hell his life has been. What an absolute tormented hell his life has been. Can we ask questions? Can we watch Diane Sawyer and not gawk? Can wewatch Diane Sawyer and disagree, or do we need to shut up, sit down and applaud anyone who switches from male to fluid or female or pangender or one of the other 63 other genders. And do we really have to clam up about public bathroom usage during these transitions? I have daughters, I have sons. My son is 10. I don't want him going into a public bathroom because of the straight guys there, what might be child predators. Nothing about homosexual or transgender or anything else. I've got my hand full worrying about straight guys who want to touch my son. I worry about my daughters. Do we really have to shut up about this? Is there nobody that says hey, hey, hey, I understand. I do understand. Bruce Jenner is seriously confused. That's what he would have to say for his life. He was seriously confused for a while. Well, Bruce, that's the way the rest of Americafeels. We're seriously confused. We don't know what's right. I'm not gender confused. I'm just confused about the volume of genders
that there is now, and what we are supposed to do about it.
Stop acting, left and right, that this is just an open and shut case. I don't know of a time in human history when this has ever happened. This is new, because man can become God. Forget about male or female.
Man thinks he's God. The speed at which the world is changing is breath-taking, and quite honestly, when things change this fast, people tend to hold onto those time-tested virtues and values that are eternal truths, and many of those are found in our religious doctrine. And deeply held religious views do not change with the draperies. They don't change with the size of the pant leg or the length of skirts or the length of a collar, because if they did, they wouldn't be eternal. They wouldn't be from God. And none of this has anything to do with hate. People of faith are commanded to love. We must love Bruce Jenner, we must -- when we watch this tonight, if you watch this tonight, will your heart break or will you break the commandment and just flip by it and say, freak.
We are commanded, as people of faith, to love, not necessarily endorse, but always love. For those who want to shout religious people down, are you commanded to love? Can we have an actual conversation without shouting someone down, without destroying them, without driving them out of society? Or is that a bridge too far for this, quote, open-minded society?