Outrage after Michael Bloomberg refers to trans people as 'it' in resurfaced video

Michael Bloomberg has come under fire for comments he made last year where he referred to transgender people as ‘it’.

The 78-year-old billionaire made the remark at a forum hosted by the Bermuda Business Development Agency on 21 March last year in Manhattan.

Speaking about legal protections for trans people, he said:

If you go to the middle of the country, people would say if your conversation during a presidential election is about some guy wearing a dress and whether he, she or it can go to the locker room with their daughter, that’s not a winning formula for most people.

As a result of the resurfaced video, many people took to social media to express their disappointment in the offensive terminology.

The resurfaced video comes about after fashion designer and Project Runway judge Isaac Mizrahi released a video throwing his support behind Bloomberg and claiming the candidate is "so incredibly sensitive" to LGBTQ+ inclusivity.

Many people on social media then called out Isaac's support for a candidate who enforced the harmful "stop and frisk" policy that disproportionately affected people of colour, the poor and trans youth.

Mike’s resurfaced video comes about after a similarly offensive remark from the billionaire in 2016 about transgender people.

In a 2016 appearance at Oxford University, he referenced the Bathroom Bill in North Carolina and said:

Some man wearing a dress should be in a locker room with their daughter.

The full video sees Mike explaining that the Midwest just doesn’t get transgender issues, as well as say that the prison system has to have policy:

Where you walk in, drop your trousers - you go this way, you go that way because… you can’t mix things in a jail. That’s a practical case where you have to make a decision.

Yikes.

Bloomberg is yet to publicly comment on the resurfaced video.

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