In the latest iteration of Piers Morgan Uncensored, the show’s firebrand host locked horns with one of America’s most beloved scientists in a debate on transgender athletes participating in sports that confirm their gender identity.
Astrophysicist Neil deGrasse Tyson joined the show to talk about Mars exploration, and his face visibly fell when Morgan broached the subject of trans athletes. Playing a clip of Tyson clashing with Bill Maher over the same topic less than a month ago, Morgan pressed him on his stance.
“What I see is [that] sports is on the frontier of how to handle the frontier of people who are trans. It’s on the frontier of how to resolve that,” said Tyson. “I’m making this up now: imagine the future of sports that does not distinguish sex, it distinguishes and sorts people by hormone ratios.”
He went on, “I’m making this up, but imagine that, if that were the case. That would be interesting. You get a hormone test, you’re in this range and then you compete against other people with the same range.”
Morgan swiftly shot back, “That’s ridiculous, Neil, that is ridiculous.”
To which Tyson responded, “No it’s not! I’ll tell you why it’s not.” He went on to explain that based on his own experience with wrestling, using hormone ratios would not fundamentally prove any different to classifying wrestlers by weight.
“I say this respectfully because I love you, but it just seems to me like you’ve dug yourself into a hole on this issue and you’re trying to get out of it,” Morgan went on. “You’re suggesting slightly mad cat theories, whereas the science, to me, is obvious.”
