Kyle Sandilands weighs in on trans athlete debate
Radio shock jock Kyle Sandilands has weighed in on the debate over transgender athletes participating in professional sports.
In a fiery on-air segment, the KIIS FM host claimed it was "offensive" for athletes who were assigned male at birth to compete in the same competition as those assigned female at birth.
"I feel - and this is only my personal opinion and I'm happy to have my mind changed - if you're born a female, you're allowed to swim against other females," Sandilands said on Monday.
"If you're a 6ft man with (audio beeped) in women's bathers, that's not going to cut it."
A producer of the show was quick to clap back at Sandilands, he was being "really offensive to trans women."
Kyle, who is neither an athlete or a member of the transgender community, defended his stance.
"It's offensive to women who want to compete against other women, that a bloke is allowed to beat them," he said.
The producer responded, "By saying bloke, you're just dismissing what a trans women is."
"Well you're dismissing what an actual woman is," Sandilands shot back.
Co-host Jackie O stepped in to try and diffuse the situation, saying people should keep their personal opinions to themselves, and let the matters be handled by sports organisations.
"So we should just say, screw those chicks who are trying to win the medal," he said.
"I get both sides here," Jackie O said.
The discussion of transgender athletes has been a widely debated topic during the election campaign, with Liberal candidate Katherine Deves receiving online threats after she described transgender children as "surgically mutilated and sterilised" in a series of unearthed tweets.
Image credits: KIIS FM