Joe Rogan’s Podcast: Steve-O Challenges Anti-Trans Rhetoric & Reveals Violence Faced by Trans People

Rogan Admits Men are the Real Danger to Women, Then Shifts Blame to Transgender Women

In a recent episode of The Joe Rogan Experience, a conversation touching on empathy quickly devolved into familiar anti-trans rhetoric. UFC commentator Joe Rogan stated that cisgender men, not transgender women, are the real danger to all women.

The exchange occurred during a discussion with comedian Steve-O, who recounted an interaction with a transgender cashier in Los Angeles that prompted him to reconsider a planned comedic bit involving breast implants. He asked the cashier if the stunt might be offensive, and received a response detailing the everyday indignities and exclusions faced by transgender individuals.

“They described to me a level of oppression that genuinely f***ing broke my heart,” Steve-O said, describing the conversation as a moment that complicated his own assumptions.

Rogan initially appeared to acknowledge the pain described, but quickly steered the conversation toward a recurring theme: the insinuation that some transgender women are “perverts” seeking access to women’s spaces under the guise of gender identity. This argument relies on the long-held, and repeatedly debunked, myth that policies protecting transgender people in sex-segregated spaces create opportunities for predatory men.

According to a 2025 review by the Williams Institute at UCLA School of Law, there is “no evidence that privacy and safety in restrooms changed as a result of transgender people having, by law, access to restrooms and other facilities in accordance with their gender identity.” The research actually suggests the opposite – that transgender people are at a heightened risk of harassment and violence in restrooms.

The report found that transgender individuals who are forced to use bathrooms corresponding to their sex assigned at birth experience higher rates of harassment and denial of access. For example, approximately 10 percent of transgender men using women’s restrooms reported being denied access, and nearly 11 percent experienced verbal harassment – rates higher than when using restrooms consistent with their gender identity.

Rogan’s argument became circular as he continued, first warning about dangers to women’s safety, then explaining the existence of gender-segregated spaces as a necessity because “some men are f***ing creeps.” He then stated, “It’s men that are the problem,” before returning to his concerns about transgender women.

Rogan acknowledged that concerns on the right are primarily focused on transgender women, stating, “No one gives a f**k about trans men going into the men’s bathroom. Come on in. Who cares?” He then suggested that some transgender people are falsely identifying as women to gain sexual gratification.

He described gender dysphoria as “a mental illness,” framing trans identity as pathology rather than a natural variation of human experience. However, the American Psychiatric Association clarifies that gender nonconformity is not a mental disorder in itself, and gender dysphoria specifically refers to clinically significant distress arising from incongruence between a person’s gender identity and sex assigned at birth – a distress not experienced by all transgender individuals.

In a particularly contentious claim, Rogan asserted that transgender mass shooters had killed more people than ICE this year and that “the majority” of high school shootings had been committed by transgender people. Steve-O responded, “I did not know that.” This claim is demonstrably false.

A 2024 Reuters fact check found that transgender individuals accounted for less than 1 percent of all mass shootings in the Gun Violence Archive over the previous decade, and only about 2 percent of school mass shootings during that period. A 2023 U.S. Secret Service study of 180 public mass attackers from 2016 to 2020 identified only three transgender individuals. FactCheck.org has similarly found that transgender or nonbinary suspects account for a very small share of mass shootings.

The available evidence indicates that transgender people are far more likely to be victims of violence than perpetrators. According to the Williams Institute, transgender people are more than four times as likely as cisgender people to experience violent victimization.

Rogan continued to question the validity of transgender women being considered women, raise concerns about prisons and bathrooms, and suggest that recognizing transgender identities creates loopholes for abuse.

Steve-O, however, repeatedly attempted to steer the conversation back to the core message that resonated with him: compassion. “My only takeaway from my experience,” Steve-O said, “is that it made me feel compassionate.”