The head of the LGBT network, David Kilmnick, said Bill Maher should be canceled following his latest remarks on his show questioning the increase in young people identifying as transgender, calling his comments “harmful, homophobic” and more.
In an article featured in Advocate magazine under the headline, “Bill Maher Has Gone Too Far With Anti-LGBTQ+ Comments,” Kilmnick said Maher’s HBO show, “Real Time With Bill Maher,” needs to be canceled after his “vitriolic commentary.”
Kilmick wrote that he “has spent over three decades fighting for the rights of our LGBTQ+ communities, particularly safe spaces for our youth,” and said what they “don’t need are the rants on a platform like Bill Maher’s show, which pose the greatest risk to LGBTQ+ youth’s safety and well-being.”
“Back in 1993, I would chalk this up to ignorance and truly believed education would help folks to critically think and change, and it did,” Kilmick wrote. “But today is different, and the alarm bell is ringing — loud! The onslaught of attacks legislatively and in the media against our community goes well beyond ignorance; it is hateful, purposeful, and intentional. We need to wake up and be smart in our fight, as all our LGBTQ+ youth need us now more than ever.”
“We need to speak up and hold everyone accountable, even those who purport to be ‘liberal and progressive,'” he added. “That’s why I am calling for the LGBTQ+ community and supporters of LGBTQ+ youth to boycott HBO until ‘Real Time With Bill Maher’ is removed from its platform. Maher has gone too far.”
During last week’s “Real Time with Bill Maher,” the host said it was not out of the realm to question what’s going on, asking “All the babies are in the wrong bodies?”
“And it’s okay to ask questions about something that’s very new and involves children,” Maher said. “The answer can’t always be that anyone from a marginalized community is automatically right, trump card, mic drop, end of discussion. Because we’re literally experimenting on children.”
The host pointed out that countries like Finland and Sweden no longer allow puberty blockers to be administered to children, and said commonsense suggests “there’s going to be problems” when doctors try to “reverse the course of raging hormones.”