By now, if you don’t know what being transgender means you’ve been hiding under a rock and you have a lot to catch up on. Arizona Fox 10 weatherman Cory McCloskey apparently doesn’t know or is confused by the definition of transgender.
Transgender: Noting or relating to a person whose gender identity does not correspond to that person’s biological sex assigned at birth.
Arizona Phoenix Fox 10’s morning news covered a story about a local transgender woman who was refused service and kicked out of a bar. After the segment and during the weather report, McCloskey brought the issue of being transgendered back up. Mind you, he did this during the weather program.
“Let’s bring it back to that earlier headline. Now what is a transgender woman? What does that even mean now?”
You can hear the disbelief of one of his co-workers as one finally responds, “She used to be a guy,” and the other anchor adds: “…that’s now a woman.” I’m pretty sure one of the anchors almost said “Holy shit” also.
The fact that McCloskey’s face looks like his mind just blew up in confusion trying to process this crazy transgender notion is beyond hilarious and sort of sad. Yes, you work in the weather room, but you aren’t current enough to know what transgender means. What the hell man?
After not knowing what to say and standing there with a bewildered look on his face, McCloskey responds:
“I can’t even keep up anymore!”
To make things even better, John Oliver caught wind of this guy’s ignorance and hilariously mocked the guy.
John Oliver:
“Holy shit! I really hope that’s also how he reports the weather. ‘Wait wait, it used to be rainy and now it’s sunny so now it’s just sunny now? I can’t even keep up anymore! This doesn’t make my head work!’ Look, let’s give him the benefit of the doubt. Maybe for him, and for many people, this is new information. Maybe he’s thinking about transgender issues for the first time, and he needs a minute to try and understand it.”
However, Phoenix News Times reports that McCloskey is a stand-up comedian as a side job. Jesus. McCloskey is also known for his weather map malfunctioning and forecasting temperatures in the thousands in the Phoenix area.
Whether McCloskey was truly asking a legitimate question or trying to practice his comedy routine on air live doesn’t matter as Oliver was able to use the clip as evidence of the mainstream media’s confusion and at times insensitivity towards the transgender community.
You can watch the hilarious John Oliver segment below!
