The Texas A&M Chapter of Young Americans for Freedom hosted Matt Walsh on campus on Wednesday, Feb. 9. Walsh, the host of the “Matt Walsh Show” on “The Daily Wire,” spoke to a packed ballroom in the Memorial Student Center about what he called his shocking claim: “Men are not women, and women are not men.”
Walsh was introduced to the cheering crowd by a YAF representative as a “best-selling LGBT author,” a title given to him by Amazon for his book “Johnny the Walrus,” which is about a boy who wants to be a walrus, but can’t. To begin his lecture, Walsh talked about a supposed “leftist plot” to infiltrate and disrupt his lecture, posing as his supporters by wearing business-casual clothing.
“‘Business casual allows us to blend in with Walsh’s supporters and should be done in addition to dressing cisgender and heterosexual passing,’” Walsh said. “To give you a preview of what’s to come, they’re planning on playing something on speakers that they’re going to smuggle in here.”
Although, this supposed plan never came to fruition during the lecture. Instead, Walsh dove into the topic of his discussion: gender ideology.
“So, why do I talk about gender ideology? Because the truth matters,” Walsh said. “Gender ideology is the most severe and extreme attack on truth in our lifetimes and possibly in the history of mankind.”
Walsh said he has no particular calling to talk about gender ideology, but he talks about it because it is important.
“If there was a serious and sustained campaign to convince the world that squares are circles and circles are squares, I’d be standing up here right now giving a speech titled, ‘Squares aren’t circles,’” Walsh said. “There is great value in saying things that you’re most forbidden from saying, whatever truth is considered most offensive.”
Walsh started his discussion by talking about John Money, a 20th century psychologist who published novel research about sex and gender identity.
“He was among the first to take the word gender out of the realm of grammar and language where it belongs — because words have gender and people don’t — and apply it to people,” Walsh said.
Walsh told a story about two children that Money worked with — Bruce and Brian Reimer. After a botched circumcision, Money advised the Reimers’ parents to instead raise Bruce as a girl.
“It was not a success,” Walsh said. “The female identity never took hold for Bruce. He was confused and miserable and on the verge of suicide until, as a teen, his mother finally told him the truth: ‘You’re really a boy.’ And he chose to immediately transition back to being a boy, trying to reclaim his true identity, his true self.”
Walsh then transitioned to a discussion on transgender children and children choosing their own gender.
“Now, the idea that a child can choose his gender is indefensible, and would still be indefensible, even if the broader claims of left-wing gender theory were true, which they aren’t,” Walsh said. “Young children can’t grasp the distinction between fantasy and reality.”
Walsh also said it is hypocritical to allow children to choose their own gender, but not their own age, name or race. Walsh used the example of a story of a child from a Twitter thread that he had seen, where the parents were talking about their child, a biological male, who chose to be a girl.
“So he can’t choose his age, can’t choose his name, certainly wouldn’t be allowed to choose his race, but he can choose his gender. Does that make sense?” Walsh said.
Walsh also referenced his recent appearance on the television show “Dr. Phil,” joking with the crowd about the bearded man in a dress with whom he was on the show. During the show, Walsh was talking with a woman who was raising a gender neutral child.
“I asked if she was progressive enough to let the child choose a race as well,” Walsh said. “What if a child wants to be a Black kid? And she paused and looked at me and then looked away and said, ‘I’m not going to dignify that with an answer.’”
After this, Walsh discussed language and the usage and definition of the word “woman.” According to Walsh, gender ideology renders the word woman meaningless.
“The theory has made it so that the word ‘woman’ itself and the word ‘man’ have no meaning,” Walsh said. “And that’s why you can walk up to any of these people and ask them to define the word ‘woman,’ and their whole worldview collapses right there in front of you. It all comes crashing down.”
Walsh also said the phrase “trans women are women,” is full of hypocrisy.
“In order for the phrase ‘trans women are women’ to mean anything, trans women have to be a category distinct from women,” Walsh said. “If they aren’t, then the phrase is a meaningless redundancy.”
Walsh ended his speech with a strong rebuke of what he called “left-wing gender ideology.”
“Left-wing gender theory is incoherent, dangerous, destructive, insane, toxic, poisonous, horrible mess,” Walsh said. “It’s time to stop pretending.”
After his initial lecture, he moved into a period of question and answer. The first question, from a student by the name of Matt who addressed Walsh as “sweet daddy Walsh,” asked what government institution Walsh would get rid of if he could.
“The honest answer would be that the Department of Education is totally worthless,” Walsh said to applause. “There are government agencies that are just worthless, like the Department of Transportation, for example. And then there are ones that are actively harmful, and the Department of Education would be one of those.”
Another student by the name of Matthew asked Walsh about the tensions between Russia and Ukraine and whether the U.S. should get involved.
“The duty of the United States government is only to protect and defend its own citizens,” Walsh said. “I just don’t see — and no one to me has presented the argument — how American families are going to be at great personal risk if [Vladimir] Putin goes into Ukraine.”
A student by the name of Stephen asked about the anti-mask laws which many states have on the books. For example, in Virginia it is illegal to wear a mask in a public place to conceal one’s identity. Walsh responded, saying that he agreed with those laws.
“It’s not a coincidence that we had mass masking, and then within a few months, we have mass rioting, mass looting, mass shoplifting and mass theft,” Walsh said. “I think those things are very much connected.”