PragerU has long history of publishing anti-LGBTQ content

PragerU falsely claims President Trump did not describe neo-Nazis as “very fine people”

NEW YORK – GLAAD, the world’s largest LGBTQ media advocacy organization, today released the following background document on digital media non-profit PragerU. PragerU releases short videos on their site, app, and via YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Last week, the nonprofit organization was in the news for being home to an interview with TV host and actor Mario Lopez on The Candace Owens Show in which Owens asked Lopez about parents supporting their transgender children, referring to it as a “weird trend.”

This week, following the tragedies in El Paso, TX and Dayton, OH, PragerU published a new video falsely claiming President Trump did not use the “very fine people” phrase to describe white nationalists at the 2017 “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in which one person was killed. 

“Context needs to be provided to the media and all Americans about PragerU and the organization’s destructive rhetoric, which includes attacking people of color and LGBTQ Americans while defending the rise of white nationalism in the United States,” said Zeke Stokes, Chief Programs Officer for GLAAD. “This so-called university is nothing more than a think tank for hate.”

According to GLAAD’s research, PragerU has dedicated content aimed at attacking people of color, the Islam religion, and the LGBTQ community. Further, PragerU has conducted interviews with many controversial public figures who are often hailed by the white supremacist movement, including Sebastian Gorka and Steve Bannon – former senior officials within the Trump Administration.  

BACKGROUND INFORMATION: PragerU’s Anti-LGBTQ Record

— In a video titled “Dangerous People Are Teaching Your Kids,” contributor Jordan Peterson includes the idea “that all sex differences are socially constructed” and “fabricated gender pronouns” among the supposedly evil ideas being taught in schools today. At another part he mocks the book for “pretty much telling you that trans is great.”

— Contributor Ashley McGuire produced a transphobic PragerU video titled “There Are Only Two Genders”.

— Produced a short video attacking trans women in beauty pageants, insisting trans women are “hindering the ability for biological women to compete.”

— Contributor Abigail Shrier produced a video insisting that trans rights and specifically pronoun usage is “totalitarian thinking” and an attempt to “control people’s thoughts”.

— Contributor Will Witt insisted that trans athletes are “destroying the quality that feminists are fighting for.” 

— On PragerU’s The Candace Owens Show, Contributor Abigail Shrier insisted that transgender is a changeable state that people outgrow.  

— Contributor Ashley McGuire insisted that trans athletes in sports like mixed martial arts means that “It’s now okay for a man to hit a woman”.

— Tweeted the skewed far-right talking point that “A massive number of those who undergo transgender surgery contemplate suicide.”

— Tweeted insistence that US military members are largely supportive of trans ban: “Leftists on social media may hate Trump’s proposed trans ban, but you know who doesn’t? U.S. generals and admirals.” (*Basing this on a skewed story from the right wing Washington Times) 

— On PragerU’s The Candace Owens Show, the host and guest Michael Knowles equated being trans with being schizophrenic and insisted that trans rights are all an attempt to rejectreality.

— Insisted the pro-LGBTQ Southern Poverty Law Center “foments hate.”

— In a video titled “The Left Ruins Everything,” founder Dennis Prager cites “imposed gender

confusion” as “in some ways the scariest of all” on his list of nine supposed things “leftists” have destroyed.

— Tweeted: “First you think: Sex = Gender.Then you’re taught: Sex is biological; Gender is socially-constructed, non-binary and/or fluid. And ultimately you understand: There’s a variety of personalities and forms of expression—but there are only two genders.”

— Mocked Elizabeth Warren for her plan to reimburse same-sex couples who were married before the Supreme Court’s marriage decisions, calling it “gay reparations.”

— Tweeted that transphobia is a “dumb term.”

— On The Candace Owens Show, the host and her guest, hip hop artist Zuby, mocked trans rights by recounting the guest’s entering into a women’s lifting completion to make a transphobic point about trans athletes.

— Contributor Will Witt attacked feminist, inclusive children’s books, asking at one point, “what is this supposed to be about, transgender rights? The baby’s not choosing their own gender? It’s a baby! What does a baby know about gender confusion?”

— Denied that Family Research Council, one of the most viciously anti-LGBTQ special interests in American history, should be designated a hate group.

— Produced a short video implying that “the left” is going to start a second Civil War.

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