Skip to content

Ana Kasparian vs. transgender people

Ana Kasparian is an American political commentator who moved from generally progressive stances on transgender issues to anti-trans positions on several subjects. Kasparian credits writing by anti-trans activist Jesse Singal for this change in views.

Background

Anahit Misak Kasparian was born on July 7, 1986 and grew up in Los Angeles. Kasparian was involved in ballet through high school. Kasparian attended California State University, Northridge, earning a bachelor’s degree in 2007.

Kasparian worked at CBS Radio in Los Angeles before leaving to earn a master’s degree, which happened in 2010. Kasparian began teaching courses there in 2013.

In 2015, Kasparian married baseball player, model, and actor Christian Lopez.

The Young Turks / TYT

In April 2007, Kasparian began contributing to YouTube channel The Young Turks hosted by Cenk Uygur, filling in as host before becoming a producer and eventually co-host. The show is known for sharing strong opinions from a progressive viewpoint. Kasparian co-hosted a show on higher education called TYT University with Jayar Jackson and later John Iadarola from 2011 to 2014. The show was renamed Think Tank in 2015. In 2015 and 2016 Kasparian hosted a panel show called The Point. Kaspararian also began writing op-eds for The Raw Story and was a host on Weekends, a show produced by Jacobin.

Kasparian, who is of Armenian descent, and Uygur, who is of Turkish descent, have been criticized about the show name The Young Turks, which many Armenians and progressives consider an inappropriate reference to the Turkish genocide of Armenians.

2022 assault and political shift

In 2022, while on a dog walk in Los Angeles, Kasparian was approached by two homeless men and sexually groped by one of them. After the incident, Kasparian began moving to the center on issues like criminal justice reform, homelessness, immigration, climate change, and identity politics. After sharing the story in 2024, Kasparian was upset by some unsympathetic responses that reportedly came from progressives. Kasparian began more openly discussing disillusion with the Democratic party and began identifying as “politically homeless.”

Transgender issues

In March 2023 Kasparian was upset after seeing gender-inclusive language a medical form, posting:

I’m a woman. Please don’t ever refer to me as a person with a uterus, birthing person, or person who menstruates. How do people not realize how degrading this is? You can support the transgender community without doing this shit. I’m sure a lot of women don’t want to be minimized to a bodily function or body part.

I have zero problem with inclusion. None. But thereā€™s gotta be a better way than boiling it down to a body part, no? Especially in the context of having reproductive rights taken away from people who just see woman as a baby-making vessel. Thatā€™s all Iā€™m saying.

Kasparian also began sharing critical views about gender affirming care for minors. Kasparian credits anti-trans writing by Jesse Singal for this change in views. In a 2023 interview with anti-trans activists “Adam Friended” and “PSA Sitch,” Kasparian said of Singal:

He did straight news reporting on basically what some of the risks could be when it comes to transitioning literal kids with puberty blockers, and then cross-sex hormones. And through his reporting, which Iā€™m very sad to say I didnā€™t really come across until this year, I learned that I was wrong about a bunch of other things. For instance, it is a lie that puberty blockers are reversible. In some cases, they are not. And they can cause irreparable harm. And look, you might think, OK, youā€™ve got to do a balancing act, and if someone, if a child or if a teenager has severe gender dysphoria, and it would actually be better for that person to go on puberty blockers, OK I mean, we should be able to balance that out. But my point here is that withholding the information because you donā€™t like the information getting out there ainā€™t the way to go, because that destroys any opportunity for us to actually have a good-faith debate about what we should do moving forward. What are the pros and cons? So thereā€™s that. And all of this stuff, it just started adding up.

Kasparian’s views led transgender TYT employee Bennie Carollo to resign in 2023, saying, “Over the past several months Ana Kasparian and Cenk Uygur have taken increasingly transphobic stances, especially regarding trans women in sports but also more generally when it comes to trans youth getting access to gender affirming care. They have begun to lash out at anyone that calls them out on where they are wrong and basically refused to learn. Recently Ana went so far as to defend Jesse Singal, who is very well known as a transphobe.”

References

Parks, Kristine (October 9, 2024). Progressive journalist unleashes on liberal intolerance that drove her away from Democratic Party. Fox News https://www.foxnews.com/media/progressive-journalist-unleashes-liberal-intolerance-drove-her-away-from-democratic-party

Carollo, Bennie (July 4, 2023). Why I left TYT. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_6DiIQWb0DE

Parks, Kristine (April 12, 2023). Progressive journalist doubles down bashing ‘birthing person’ language after backlash: ‘I’ll never apologize.’ Fox News https://www.foxnews.com/media/progressive-journalist-doubles-down-blasting-trans-inclusive-language-backlash-ill-never-apologize

Hall, Alexander (July 7, 2023). Progressive journalist breaks with left, warns puberty blockers can cause ‘irreparable harm’ to children. Fox News https://www.foxnews.com/media/progressive-journalist-breaks-left-warns-puberty-blockers-cause-irreparable-harm-children

Howard, Caroline (December 28, 2017). The Young Turks’ Ana Kasparian Won’t Pretend To Be Neutral. Forbes https://www.forbes.com/sites/carolinehoward/2017/12/27/the-young-turks-ana-kasparian-wont-pretend-to-be-neutral/#5003b0637bf7

Media

Robby Soave and Nomiki Konst (October 15, 2024). Ana Kasparian explains her beef with the Left: Details horrific assault by homeless man. The Hill https://thehill.com/video/ana-kasparian-explains-her-beef-with-the-left-details-horrific-assault-by-homeless-man/10132153/

Jillian Michaels (October 7, 2024). Ana Kasparian BLASTS ā€œWOKEISMā€ – Is she ditching the left?! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H5FFner3pgo [clip] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQcE5qkSmBI

Katie Herzog (April 27, 2024). Episode 213: Ana Kasparian Gets Mugged By Reality. Blocked and Reported https://www.blockedandreported.org/p/episode-213-ana-kasparian-gets-mugged

Graham Stephan and Jack Selby (April 19, 2024). Ana Kasparian On The Transgender Community. The Iced Coffee Hour Clips https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38BoHOlM-90

“Adam Friended” and “PSA Sitch” (July 2, 2023). Talking to ANA KASPARIAN of THE YOUNG TURKS About Politics & Culture – Sitch & Adam Show 273 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z8TD2jNPLK4

Resources

Ana Kasparian (anakasparian.com)

Wikipedia (en.wikipedia.org)

X/Twitter (x.com)

Substack (substack.com)

Instagram (instagram.com)

Facebook (facebook.com)

IMDb (imdb.com)