On The Ingraham Angle, Meg Kilgannon, who is associated with TERF groups, defends anti-trans statement from lesbian tennis player

Fox News hosts ally to trans-exculionary radical feminism for the second time in a week

Written by Brianna January

Published

On Monday night, Fox News host Laura Ingraham hosted anti-trans advocate Meg Kilgannon, who is a leader of a coalition of anti-trans groups that includes several transgender-exclusionary radical feminist (TERF) groups. This marked the second time the network elevated a TERF or someone associated with them in the span of one week. TERFs claim to be feminists -- and some even identify as lesbian, gay, or bisexual -- but they hold vehemently anti-trans viewpoints and are widely rejected by LGBTQ advocates and feminists.

Previously, on February 12, Tucker Carlson Tonight featured Julia Beck, a TERF who was removed from Baltimore’s LGBTQ Commission in 2018 for anti-trans animus. During the segment, Beck pushed the thoroughly debunked myth that trans-inclusive policies threaten the safety of women and girls. Before appearing on Carlson's show, Beck and several other TERFs participated in an anti-trans panel hosted by the anti-LGBTQ Heritage Foundation. Carlson hosted another TERF, Kara Dansky, on his show in 2017, and he has also previously turned to anti-trans lesbian Tammy Bruce to discuss LGBTQ issues.

During the February 18 Ingraham Angle segment, Kilgannon discussed recent anti-trans comments made by lesbian tennis player Martina Navratilova, saying, “I'm really grateful for Martina speaking out.” She also said, “Trans women are men, and women should not be forced to compete against men.” Kilgannon is a member of the Hands Across the Aisle Coalition, a self-described coalition of “radical feminists, lesbians, Christians and conservatives that are tabling our ideological differences to stand in solidarity against gender identity legislation.” In 2017, leaders from the coalition, including ones who are lesbian or describe themselves as feminists, participated in another anti-trans panel hosted by the Heritage Foundation. Kilgannon previously fought trans-inclusive school policies as the executive director of the Concerned Parents and Educators of Fairfax County in Virginia and participated in extreme anti-LGBTQ group Family Research Council's anti-trans speaker series. Kilgannon’s appearance Ingraham's show within a week of Beck’s on Carlson's highlights the increasingly growing relationship between anti-trans self-described “feminists” and conservatives and right-wing media. 

From the February 18 edition of Fox News' The Ingraham Angle:

MEG KILGANNON (MEMBER, HANDS ACROSS AMERICA): This is a ridiculous argument that women are not going to suffer because men are competing in our sports. That's, that's just ridiculous on its face.

LAURA INGRAHAM (HOST): But what about the argument of equality? That trans athletes want to compete in the area they want to compete in, and they make it an equality thing. So if you oppose them, you're a horrible, awful, rotten person?

KILGANNON: Well, trans women are men, and women should not be forced to compete against men. This is basic fairness. I'm really grateful for Martina for speaking out. She's going to make a lot of space for more women and more athletes to speak out on this and say what we really believe, which is that women should not have to compete against men in sports. It's very simple.