Ben Shapiro Called 'Bozo' by Student During Anti-Transgender Event

A video showing the moment Ben Shapiro was called "a bozo" during a heated exchange over gender identity at a North Carolina college has been seen more than two million times.

Conservative firebrand Shapiro spoke about transgender issues to a large audience at the "Men Cannot Be Women" event hosted by Young Americans Foundation (YAF), a conservative youth group, at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro (UNCG) on Monday.

Shapiro was invited to speak at the college after YAF shared one of the commentator's quotes against transgender theory in February. Shapiro was largely welcomed by the audience, but when he took questions, he became embroiled in a bitter exchange with one student who described himself as a "mathematician and physicist."

The student said: "So, I think I'm pretty qualified to say that most of what you're saying is based on old data. Like, for example, gender identity disorder. That's a DSM4 [diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders] bro. We use a DSM5 now."

Shapiro responded: "I literally cited the DSM5 in the speech, and it's called gender dysphoria."

According to the American Psychiatric Association, DSM5 helps clinicians and researchers define and classify mental disorders in order to inform diagnoses and treatment.

The student then commented: "You sound like a bozo, bro," adding other personal attacks that drew boos from the audience.

Shapiro responded by saying: "Let me just say, the nice thing about having several small children is I don't feel the necessity of having my masculinity challenged by someone like you."

As the exchange continued, the student said Shapiro subscribed to a "Western colonial framework of gender" and mentioned other cultures' views, notably those of Native Americans and West African societies.

Shapiro replied: "And they are incorrect. I am saying biologically, they are incorrect."

Shapiro's comments reflected the general theme of his almost 30-minute-long speech at the college which expressed conservative viewpoints about the transgender community, namely that gender is binary and not a social construct as proposed by left-wing activists.

Newsweek has contacted a representative for Shapiro and the UNCG for comment.

According to the Indian Health Service, a federal health program for American Indians, while two-spirit may be included in the umbrella of LGBTQ terminology, it does not only mean Native Americans who are gay or transgender.

In many tribes, two-spirit people were not considered male or female and were referred to as a third gender. The surviving Native American cultures have diverse attitudes to sex and gender and not all people from these communities perceive it the same way.

But this view is contradicted by conservative groups in America who have grasped the gender identity issue ahead of the mid-terms and say people cannot change the sex they were born as.

Shapiro has dismissed LGBTQ arguments and believes men and women cannot change their gender. He has made numerous comments about LGBTQ people, including in a 2015 exchange with transgender reporter Zoey Tur where they discussed Caitlyn Jenner being given the Arthur Ashe Courage Award.

The conservative commentator said of Jenner: "Why are we mainstreaming mental illness and delusion."

He later added: "I'll call him Caitlyn Jenner. Forget about the disrespect, facts don't care about your feelings. It turns out that every chromosome, every cell in Caitlyn Jenner's body is male, except for some of his sperm cells."

Update 04/13/22 at 11:30 a.m. EDT: This article was updated to add more information about the exchange between Shapiro and the student.