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He spent part of his Wednesday night show berating a Canadian politician over a new initialism for LGBT people and other sexual minorities.
Fox News host Tucker Carlson spent a segment of his program Wednesday night badgering a Canadian politician over what Carlson deemed an overly inclusive initialism for LGBT people and other sexual minorities.
The segment on Tucker Carlson Tonight focused on an inclusivity training course for teachers in Durham, Ont., that used the initialism LGGBDTTTIQQAAP. It stands for lesbian, gay, genderqueer, bisexual, demisexual, transgender, transsexual, two-spirit, intersex, queer, questioning, asexual, allies, pansexual, and polyamorous.
Stephen LeDrew, the former head of Canada's Liberal Party, admitted he didn't know what all the letters mean (and he gave an erroneous definition of "two-spirit," a term for gay people used by indigenous North Americans), but said the more inclusive term is useful it if it helps anyone feel "like a better person" and "that they are more included in society." He added, "That is what Canada is about."
Carlson responded, "That is the point. We all mindlessly go along. But the point is, we are all bullied, we're all afraid to ask honest questions, like what is this? So there are 15 different groups in this acronym. Did anyone poll them and ask do you want to be included? Do the asexuals want to be with the allies and the pansexuals and the polyamorous? I mean, this is all made up. Nobody asked anybody and now it's imposed on the rest of us."
Actually, it's not being imposed on anyone -- it was included in a training for a single school district. But the segment included chirons such as "LGBT Is Now LGGBDTTTIQQAAP" and "Inclusiveness Training Gone Wild."
"It's not a rule, Tucker," LeDrew said. "What you are reading is something that was created by teachers that said, let's bring all the groups in." He said it sounds like Carlson is taking issue with inclusiveness.
Carlson said he's not, then again asked if anyone was queried on what they think of the longer initialism. LeDrew replied that Canada doesn't conduct polls to the extent that the U.S. does, leading Carlson to say, "You just impose it on a passive population?"
Carlson also wondered if someone could be prosecuted and imprisoned under Canada's hate speech laws if they don't use all the letters in the initialism. LeDrew said they wouldn't be, that no one is imprisoned for hate speech. Carlson said that's incorrect.
Canadian law does provide for prison terms for those convicted speech intended to incite hatred or violence, but there is a high bar set for prosecution -- it requires the consent of the nation's attorney general. And prosecutions are very rare.
Watch Carlson and LeDrew below.
