Non-binary couple attacked by Piers Morgan on 'Good Morning Britain'

Breakfast television presenter and professional defender of Donald Trump has caused outrage (again) by making a series of ignorant comments to a non-binary couple on Wednesday’s (May 17) edition of Good Morning Britain.

Fox Fisher and Owl (Ugla Stefanía), a couple who both identify as non-binary, appeared on the show to discuss their identities and clear up confusion about what it means to be non-binary. Fox was assigned female at birth, while Owl was assigned male.

Susanna Reid tried to frame the conversation around getting to the bottom of definitions of non-binary identities, but Piers quickly managed to make the conversation about himself and his own ill-informed opinions on the matter.

Piers started the conversation by asking Fox what they were ‘born as’, before asking them whether they had undergone any gender confirmation surgery. Fox, visibly uncomfortable, told Piers that surgery doesn’t really come into all discussions of gender identity. At one point Piers asked Fox “What are you?”

Pers went on to grill Owl about their birth – asking them how their gender was assigned when they were born. A perplexed Owl responded by saying that they do not recall the moments directly following their own birth.

“There’s very strong ideas about what it is to be a man and a woman in our society, and those ideas are entirely socially constructed,” said Owl. “As a trans person who has been perceived as a man … who transitioned I noticed how people perceived you differently.”

“My problem with everyone being free to identify themselves in any way they choose,” Piers said, “is where does that end?

“Where are any boundaries, for instance, for kids at school? If you can basically come in and say ‘I’m not a boy or girl anymore’, what else can you say you’re not?

In a re-framing of the ‘equal marriage will lead to men marrying their dogs’ debate, Piers said: “Can I be anything I want? Can I be an elephant?”

Piers also expressed indignation at the pair’s wish to be referred to using the singular pronoun ‘they’, then went on a somewhat confusing segue about men and women’s prisons. He then went on to dismiss the increased risk of suicide for trans youth, arguing that only ‘2 or 3’ trans young people committed suicide last year.

The response to the exchange on social media was, as expected, not supportive of Piers.

“You can tell how fragile @piersmorgan is when feminism results in ‘oh no my manhood!’ and non-binary people results in ‘oh no my gender!’,” wrote Jennifer Harrison

News flash: your cis, binary gender isn’t challenged or threatened by another individual elsewhere on Earth being non-binary

— Jennifer Harrison (@GeneticJen) May 17, 2017

Piers Morgan so rude to @UglaStefania & @theFoxFisher. Why are trans people expected to explain and defend themselves, even on breakfast TV?

— Paris Lees (@parislees) May 17, 2017

Non-binary identities have existed throughout history. It’s not a fad, whatever Piers Morgan says https://t.co/CTL7ELPvfH

— Josh (@J_Manasa) May 17, 2017

Responding to the incident, a Stonewall spokesperson said: “Piers Morgan’s bigoted and transphobic comments about nonbinary people are deeply damaging and offensive.

“No one has the right to deny another person’s gender identity, and to mock them for trying to live an authentic life is a form of bullying and completely unacceptable.”

Watch the exchange below:

Non-binary couple attacked by Piers Morgan on ‘Good Morning Britain’

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