Jonathan Van Ness Posts About Trans Rights Following Tense Interview With Dax Shepard

JVN took to Instagram Tuesday to post a video in which he elaborated on some of the commentary he made on Monday’s episode, in which he got emotional while discussing transphobia in sports.

“There’s so many conversations about trans inclusion in sports, we have state houses all over the United States that consider passing bills to make sure that no trans kids are able to play sports at any level in their state,” the Queer Eye star began.

He continued, “And I jus think that this is a huge travesty. The science that we have now says that transgender women do not hold an unfair biological advantage over cis women.”

Van Ness added, “Now, what so much of the rhetoric is, if someone has gone through a male puberty, and they’ve ever experienced that male puberty, then they will always be unfair to play women’s sports.”

Discussing the narrative around “protecting women’s sports,” Van Ness turned to the blockade against gender affirming care that exists in many states, which would prevent a trans girl from going through puberty that some believe would put them at an unfair advantage where competitive sports are concerned.

“So do you see how we have governments and governing bodies of athletics that are making it so trans people can’t play sports anyway?” he asked. “But not only have trans women been able play tennis or swim for the last two decades, how many Olympic trans tennis players or swimmers can you think of?”

“Exactly. Zero,” Van Ness clapped back.

He also explained what he learned from being able to play sports himself. JVN, who identifies as a non-binary trans person and uses he/she/they pronouns, said having the opportunity to be a part of a team taught him valuable life lessons that trans kids will miss out on should they be banned from sports, including, “rejection” “teamwork,” “how to overcome an obstacle” and “people skills.”

“We are doing a huge injustice to trans kids for just not letting them play,” Van Ness maintained.

He also touched on equity and fairness in sports and the dangers that lie in participating, no matter one’s gender. Ultimately, the TV personality said the entire conversation around the issue is rooted in transphobia.

In the caption of the passionate explainer, JVN fact checked some of his stats on intersex people as well, as discussed during Monday’s show, adding, “0.2% of 330 million is 660,000 in the case you were curious. But to fact check myself, really there are 5.6 million intersex people in the United States.”

The follow-up video comes after Van Ness and Shepard engaged in a bit of a back-and-forth over trans rights and trans kids in sports.

The conversation, which started over whether or not the New York Times was a left-leaning publication, was one that JVN called “trigger city,” prompting Shepard to apologize on more than one occasion for putting the TV star and hair stylist in a position where he felt he had to defend himself.

“Sincerely, I did not want you to come in and challenge your position on any of these things,” Shepard said. “I’m just emotionally exhausted,” Van Ness added of having to defend issues surrounding trans people and transphobia in athletics.

“I think you’re right to feel like it’s not on my shoulders to set the table for you,” Shepard said.

The podcast episode and JVN’s latest post prompted lots of conversation online, with his followers taking to the comments of his new post to voice their support for Van Ness.

“I was so disappointed listening to yesterday’s episode of AE. You handled it with such intelligence and grace, but you shouldn’t have had to. Thank you for educating ❤️,” one commenter wrote.

Another added, “I loved the point you also made on armchair expert about Michael Phelps being biologically born with physical advantages. Just another great point to why sports are inherently unfair. You can’t exclude one group and say it’s unfair unless you create leagues where everyone has to have the exact same biology to compete. Basketball players should all have to be the same height. Everyone should have the same muscle mass. Weigh the same etc… This is just the right narrative that trans people are coming for you, your kids, and your gold medals and it’s just MADNESS.”

Division 1 athlete, Victoria Browne, also sounded off, writing, “Love this!! As a former D1 athlete I know how much sports positively impacted my life and ALL WOMEN deserve that opportunity! 🙌.”

To hear Van Ness and Shepard’s full conversation, check out the podcast episode below.