By now, Don Lemon must be feeling thoroughly chastised. One quip about Nikki Haley's age got him in more trouble than that time he suggested white men should go on a no-fly list. Rather than cancel his show—and at least improve its on-air broadcasts—CNN has announced that Lemon must undergo "formal training," the nature of which is left unexplained but sounds thoroughly excruciating.
Will he have to sit through 8 hours of mandatory video lectures? Will there be torture (but I repeat myself)? Will CNN drag a law firm partner out to make Lemon sign a piece of paper acknowledging that he said a bad-bad and hurt people's feelings?
This whole episode, I'll admit, struck me as profoundly odd. Does Nikki Haley really need CNN to protect her from the awkward comments of a gay man? Do any women? Even if what Lemon said is wrong, so what? Was it insulting to women? Yes, of course it was. But was it any more insulting than when a man who claims to be a woman exposes his male genitalia in front of actual females in a girls' locker room? Not even close. And yet one is the cause of national moral outrage and the other is defended by feminists. Strange.
America simultaneously wants to protect our women from Don's uncouth words while exposing them to the worst behavior of disturbed perverts.
If Don Lemon says a woman peaks at 24, he has to do sensitivity training. But if Don Lemon had instead announced he is actually a woman and then exposed himself to a colleague in a bathroom, and she complained about it, she would be the one forced to undergo sensitivity training, or worse.
The milder the offense, the more unhinged America's reaction will be. Meanwhile, women are left at the mercy of actual predators.
On my show recently, University of Kentucky swimmer Riley Gaines described being forced to share a locker room with Lia Thomas, a biological male with male body parts. Lia Thomas's social media activities make it clear that he has a fetish for cross-dressing and is a fan of "transgender" athletes beating up actual women. Because Gaines has spoken about her desire to compete against other women and not have to share her locker room with a pervert, she has faced harassment and death threats.
And that's not the worst of it. All across America, teen girls who feel uncomfortable with growing up and changes in their bodies are told that they are gay or "trans" and rushed by manipulative adults—often in the medical profession—towards irreversible and life-altering surgeries and hormone treatments.
By the time these girls realize what is happening, for many of them, it will be too late. Some will be left unable to reach sexual climax, many others will never be able to have children. Others will be so troubled they end their own lives. None of them will be "men" on the inside, a fiction created by diseased minds and amplified by weak ones.
Nobody at CNN will ever face discipline for promoting transgender propaganda. None of them will be called reckless for using euphemisms like "bottom surgery" for what amounts to child abuse and genital mutilation.
None of them will be called perverts for defending co-ed locker rooms. None will be called anti-woman for robbing female swimmers like Riley Gaines of a national championship. None will be tarred and feathered like us conservatives as transphobic, bigots and stochastic terrorists.
But call a woman unattractive or past her prime, and beware, there will be hell to pay.
So, it's time for America's liberal news elites to decide: Do you believe in protecting women, or not?
Charlie Kirk is the Founder and CEO of Turning Point USA, and host of The Charlie Kirk Show.
