On Monday's New Day on CNN, co-host Chris Cuomo dismissively suggested that supporters of the "bathroom bill" in North Carolina that would bar men from using women's public restrooms in government buildings in reality support the measure because they "don't like these transgender people getting what they want" as he began a debate with guest Peter Sprigg of the Family Research Council.





But times change, and that's what this is really about. Are you ready to change in North Carolina? Are you ready to respect transgendered people for what they say they are? Because you can't point to any potential danger here. I know that's what you're doing and others are doing, saying there's a risk to women if the -- but we don't see that play out in any statistic that you can cite.

The segment almost seemed like a parody making fun of a liberal caricature as Cuomo seriously defended the idea of biological men choosing to identify themselves as women and using women's bathrooms. After Sprigg recalled that the bill preserves the universal cultural tradition "that we separate biological males and biological females for the purpose of certain intimate activities like bathing, dressing, and going to the bathroom," the CNN host dismissed possible dangers for women and girls and fretted that "We do see the risk to transgender people when they're called out and exposed to this kind of scrutiny." Cuomo began his response:

He added:

You know, I know you've been using the baker analogy that we saw with gay marriage, you shouldn't have these bakers having to bake cakes for people they don't want, you shouldn't have these girls having to go into bathrooms with people they don't want. We don't see that risk. However, we do see the reciprocal risk. We do see the risk to transgender people when they're called out and exposed to this kind of scrutiny.

After his guest recalled that he believes there are "legitimate fears" about safety, Cuomo jumped in and demanded, "How are they legitimate? How are they legitimate?" leading Sprigg to respond:

When you see someone who is obviously a man, regardless of whether they're wearing a dress or not, I think a woman in a restroom where she expects to only be with women or a girl who expects to be with girls has a right to feel uncomfortable about that and to feel like her privacy has been violated. It's a privacy issue, even if their safety is never violated in practice.

Ignoring the primary concern that biological men would be able to go into women's restrooms, Cuomo switched to the opposite case of a biological woman who identifies as a man being forced to go into a women's room and accused conservative supporters of the bathroom bill of "creating the problem." Cuomo:

But the point is, the reason it looks like a man is because the person identifies as a man, so they want to go into the man's bathroom. You're saying, "Yeah, but on the birth certificate, it still says that that person's a woman, so they have to go into the woman's bathroom." You're creating the problem, you're not solving it.

Cuomo then dismissed the idea of men "pretending" to be women as he and his guest went back and forth:

SPRIGG: No, no, the transgender people are creating the problem by pretending to be the opposite of their actual biological sex, even when people can see they are their biological sex.



CUOMO: See, but that's the pretending part, though, Peter, right? Because that's the concern. You're saying they're pretending, they're saying they're not pretending, and this is part of cultural evolution. You seem unwilling to embrace that.

Below is a transcript of the relevant portion of the Monday, April 4, New Day on CNN: