Massively popular podcaster Joe Rogan called transgender people “f**king perverts” and blamed them for committing most school shootings in a recent broadcast.

When Rogan’s guest Stephen Glover (better known as Steve-O from the MTV prank comedy show Jackass) tried to mention a trans person describing to them a “level of oppression that genuinely f**king broke my heart,” Rogan repeatedly spoke over Glover, denying the current campaign of institutional oppression seeking to eradicate transgender people from all aspects of social life in the United States.

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When Glover said that the trans person wasn’t allowed to use the bathroom at their own place of work… Rogan replied, “Not true.”

“They’re just not allowed to use the bathroom that doesn’t align with their biological sex,” Rogan said.

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Approximately 19 states have passed laws or implemented policies restricting transgender people from using bathrooms that correspond with their gender identity, according to the Movement Advancement Project. While Glover didn’t mention where this trans person worked, a majority of these aforementioned states restrict trans bathroom use in government-owned buildings and spaces, including K-12 schools, colleges, and more, where trans employees may work.

“I genuinely think there’s people that feel like they are the in the wrong biological sex,” Rogan continued. “But there’s also people that are f**king perverts, and they have a thing called autogynephilia.”

The debunked pseudoscientific theory of autogynephilia, reportedly originated by anti-trans doctor Ray Blanchard, refers to the idea that trans women transition due to a sexual fetish for femininity, for inhabiting a female body, and longing to be close to other women. Anti-trans quacks have tried to claim that many trans women just have this sexual fetish, but all major American medical and psychological associations reject this as untrue and unsupported by scientific evidence.

Rogan went on to claim that some trans women are just “creeps” who “want to be around women” and that allowing them to use facilities matching their gender identity is like giving them “a f**king Willy Wonka golden ticket to go into … the women’s locker room and the women’s bathroom and stare at women, to pretend you’re a woman when you’re just when you’re just a crazy man and you’re actually into women.”

However, Rogan is merely repeating an untrue transphobic talking point that vilifies trans women as a threat to girls’ and women’s safety. Similar smears have been used against Black men; gay, lesbian, and bisexual people; and now trans people to foment public opposition and violence against these groups as they fight for civil rights and acceptance.

In states and cities that have trans-inclusive restroom policies, there is no evidence that violent victimization by strangers increased in restrooms as a result, the Williams Institute reported in 2025. In fact, numerous reports indicate that trans people are far more likely than cisgender people to suffer harassment and violence in public restrooms, partly as a result of rhetoric like Rogan’s that smears them as sexual predators.

In a subsequent segment, Glover mentioned “politicians trying to put [trans people] in internment camps,” to which Rogan asked, “Who’s doing that? What politicians are saying they should?”

While Rogan is correct that politicians have not loudly espoused “internment camps for trans people” — since politicians rarely explicitly call for violence and imprisonment of marginalized communities — numerous Republican legislators have criminalized various aspects of trans identity, creating criminal penalties for cross-dressing, helping young people obtain gender-affirming healthcare, and carrying government-issued ID that doesn’t match a person’s gender assigned at birth.

Some laws governing these aspects punish offenders with imprisonment, and the current administration and various state governments have passed policies that would force trans people into detention facilities that do not match their gender (ensuring a higher likelihood that they will face harassment and physical and sexual violence inside). These facilities also often deny trans people gender-affirming healthcare — essentially forcing them to detransition — or may even harass detainees into adopting a cisgender identity (essentially forced conversion therapy).

“Do you know the majority of these high school shootings have been transgender people?” Rogan said, then blaming “psych medications,” “giving them a bunch of crazy hormones,” pre-existing “mental struggles,” being “ostracized from society,” and then being “empowered by thinking that… the world has done something bad to them, and that there’s like a genocide against trans people.”

Rogan was repeating another transphobic lie. Of the 129 school shooting incidents reported this year alone, only a few have been conducted by a shooter who identified as trans. The fact is, mass shooters are not disproportionately transgender and the overwhelming majority of mass shootings are conducted by cisgender men. Furthermore, there is no connection between gender-affirming medications, trans-related mental health issues, and shootings.

The Joe Rogan Experience (JRE) is the world’s most popular podcast, holding the top spot on Spotify for six consecutive years through 2025.

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