On Tuesday, Berkeley law professor Khiara Bridges got in a testy exchange with Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley during a line of questioning about whether men can get pregnant or not. The professor cited the suicide rate among transgender people and accused Hawley of being transphobic. Hawley shot back that her reasoning did not make sense.
The incident happened during a Senate hearing on the consequences of the Supreme Court’s decision on Dobbs v. Jackson when Hawley asked the professor questions about her use of phrasing about who can get pregnant. Bridges was there as an expert on race, class and reproductive rights.
“You’ve referred to people with a capacity for pregnancy. Would that be women?” Hawley asked Bridges.
“Many cis women have the capacity for pregnancy. Many cis women do not have the capacity for pregnancy,” she responded testily. “There are also trans men who are capable of pregnancy as well as nonbinary people who are capable of pregnancy.”
Hawley followed up, “Your view, the core of this right is about what?”
“I want to recognize that your line of questioning is transphobic, and it opens up trans people to violence,” Bridges quipped back.
“Wow. Are you saying that I’m opening up people to violence by asking whether or not women can have pregnancies?” the Senator asked incredulously. “Because of my line of questioning? So we can’t talk about it?”
“Do you believe that men can get pregnant?” Bridges asked.
“No, I don’t think men can get pregnant,” Hawley said.
“So you’re denying that trans people exist,” Bridges said.
Hawley followed her strange line of reasoning and said, “And that leads to violence?”
“Is this how you run your classroom? Are students allowed to question you, or are they also treated like this?” Hawley said.
“We have a good time in my class. You should join,” she followed up. “You would learn a lot.”
Hawley posted afterwards a tweet with the comment written above it saying that the conversation summed up a modern plank in the Democrat party.
Elizabeth Warren Says Congress Must Shut Down Pregnancy Centers For “Torturing” People
“The Democrats say what they really think: men can get pregnant and if you disagree, you are ‘transphobic’ and responsible for violence,” he tweeted.
Watch the full exchange below.
I think we all learned a lot there. That was quite the illuminating video and shows the kind of advocacy from the left that is in Washington DC. These are the people that shape our laws because they spend the time advocating for their ideas in the Government. Do you think Hawley was right to question her?
