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Democratic presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg came under fire Thursday after a recently surfaced 2016 video showed him referring to transgender women as a “man wearing a dress,” and suggesting that people in the US Midwest are not intelligent enough to understand social issues.
While speaking at a University of Oxford event in England, Bloomberg, 77, brought up the topic of transgender people using the bathroom, which at the time was a controversial issue in the U.S.
“We, the intelligentsia, the people who could make it into this room, we believe a lot of things in terms of equality and protecting individual rights that make no sense to the vast bulk of people,” the former New York City mayor and billionaire business mogul said while responding to a question about Brexit.
Bloomberg pointed to the issue around trans rights and bathrooms to support his argument that there is “a fundamental disconnect between us believing the rights of the individual come first and the general belief around the world — I think it’s fair to say — that the rights of society come first.”
In 2016, nearly 20 states pursued “bathroom bills” to block transgender people from using public facilities. Around the time Bloomberg made his comments, 60% of transgender people said they avoided using the restroom in public over fears of harassment.
“If you want to know if somebody is a good salesman, give them the job of going to the Midwest and picking a town and selling to that town the concept that some man wearing a dress should be in a locker room with their daughter,” Bloomberg said. “If you can sell that, you can sell anything.”
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Article URL: https://www.businessinsider.com/bloomberg-backlash-for-calling-trans-woman-man-wearing-a-dress-2020-2