A transphobic joke from this week’s Weekend Update has earned Colin Jost a heap of criticism on social media. On the most recent installment of Saturday Night Live, Jost tackled the news that dating app Tinder had unveiled a variety of new gender options for its users. Jost’s joke went like this: “The dating app Tinder announced a new feature this week that gives users 37 different gender identity options. It’s called, ‘Why democrats lost the election.”
Condemnation swiftly came from Bustle’s Sam Escobar, who wrote on Twitter, simply, “What the fuck is this.” They continued: “Trans & gender nonconforming people are more likely to be harassed, attacked, abused, discriminated against — but yeah. LOL DEMS!” Escobar was not alone. Later, comedian Cole Escola and the band PWR BTTM also weighed in:
Jost tried to defend his take using a New York Times opinion piece from Columbia professor Mark Lilla. In the piece published in Sunday’s paper, Lilla argued that, “In recent years American liberalism has slipped into a kind of moral panic about racial, gender and sexual identity that has distorted liberalism’s message and prevented it from becoming a unifying force capable of governing.” The catch is, that piece was also the subject of criticism, so much so that the Times itself examined the dissenting opinions.