Chris Jericho Talks Christians Who Are Mad At Nyla Rose, Why He Edited Donald Trump Jr. Interview

AEW Women's World Champion Nyla Rose was recently a guest on Talk Is Jericho. Among many other things, Jericho discussed editing out Donald Trump, Jr.'s comments about transgender athletes from an episode of Talk Is Jericho.

Apparently, Jericho edited out comments about transpeople from his podcast with Trump, Jr. because 'Le Champion' was not confident that 'The First Son' knew his facts on the subject.

"[Trump] was talking about [transpeople competing in sport] and like [Rose] said, I don't know the facts," Jericho reflected. "I don't know if [Trump] knows the facts. And when I played it back, out of respect for [Rose] and knowing [her], I said, 'I'm just going to edit this out' because I don't know enough about it and I don't know if [Trump] knows enough about it because he's just talking as he would."

During the conversation, Jericho talked about Rose having the same estrogen levels as people who were born as women, so people cannot correctly argue that transwomen are necessarily physically stronger or more athletic.  

"To keep going back to the estrogen levels," Jericho said [imitating detractors], "'wow, it's a man wrestling a woman' or whatever, it's not because [Rose] now [has] the same estrogen levels as a woman, so maybe [Rose] might be bigger, but that physical strength that you would get from the testosterone of being a male is not there anymore."

When asked how Rose's family's reacted to 'The Native Beast' transitioning, she said the transition "was hard on her [mother] at first".

"So that was pretty interesting. My mom always thought it was going to go as far as being a crossdresser. She just thought that's what it was. Everybody just thought I was going to be eccentric, yeah, or probably gay!" Rose elaborated, "so my mom always knew and when I came out, she was upset because she always wanted a son and that was part of what took so long for me to come out to her is because I knew how much she wanted a son and I never wanted to take that away from her. I just felt it was selfish of me."

Although Rose's mother took some time to come around, she eventually did.

"My mom, she didn't take it easy at first. It took her time." Rose noted, "we were a bit distant for a while, but eventually she came around and she [has] been so supportive even when she didn't really understand and had to make her peace. She was still supportive. She still wanted to know that I was okay. She still wanted to make sure that I was taken care of, and wasn't harming myself or anything like that."

Conversely, Rose's father seemed to be fine with the transition from the start.

"My dad, I was totally scared to tell my dad and he was like, 'okay, cool,'" Rose recalled. "I wrote him this long, like, three-page letter, like old Civil War, 'my dearest Marjorie,' like, I wrote him this long letter and it was ridiculous. I turned it to him and he was like, 'oh, okay, cool!' I was like, 'dad, that's it?'"

According to Rose, she did not date men when she was male.

"As a male, I never dated men because I didn't identify as gay. Like, I didn't date men till I transitioned because, if I can, I got called 'f-ggot' so much in high school, I thought it was my name just for being different." Rose professed, "I didn't date men until I transitioned. And then, I was open to the idea because then I'm not gay. I'm dating straight men. They are attracted to me for my femininity. Gay men aren't attracted to transgender women because they represent female."

Rose, who said her real life gender and sexual identities do not play into her pro wrestling character, divulged that she is [currently] married to a woman.  

"I do date, but I don't at the moment because have a wife, at the moment. I say, 'at the moment' like it's ominous! I probably shouldn't say it like that." Rose stated, "she is a cisgendered woman. She was lucky. She drew the #30 spot [in the Royal Rumble]. Like, she just happened to be the nicest one at the time and we clicked. We had a relationship because I did date about two guys before her, so it really could have been anyone's game. Like, I'm genuinely just attracted to good people."

While Rose was romantically involved with someone during her transition, that woman checked out mentally during the process.  

"I did . I was seeing somebody when I was kind of like figuring everything out and I'm like, 'I'm about to take this step. The big step.' At the time, it was a woman and to my surprise, she did stick around, but she didn't really. She said she was going to stick around. At first it was fine, but when it became real, she kind of checked out."

When Jericho asked if Christians especially give her a hard time for "playing God", Rose responded in the affirmative.

"Oh, for sure. Absolutely! Like, where were we? We were somewhere in the Bible Belt and they booed the hell out of me. As soon as I stepped through the curtain, it was like, 'you guys are booing my existence, not, like, my character. But, hey, I'm a heel – bring it on!' So definitely, there definitely is." Rose continued, "when people are telling me what God is going to feel, I'm like, 'you don't know that. And also, I'm pretty sure you're not supposed to judge anybody, but you conveniently forgot that part, right?' That's always funny to me."

Moreover, this inhospitable treatment is the reason so many transpeople give up Christianity.  

"I'm not trying to play God or any of that," Rose confessed. "I believe in God. I believe this is my journey to womanhood. Like, I'm not trying to change God's work. I believe this is the journey God wanted me to take."

Jericho pointed out that Christians who do not accept transpeople are 'hypocrites'. 

"As a Christian myself, I mean, I learned a long time ago, if you go to the basic principles of Jesus Christ, it's that, 'love your neighbor,' not 'love your neighbor if he was born a male and stayed a male,'" Jericho joked. "If Jesus was around, like [Rose] said, if you go to Heaven, your soul would be a woman, either you're a good person or you're not. Like, a platypus is a very strange animal, there's very different characteristics for all of us. So I think it's a very hypocritical thing to say to be Christian and to be mad at [Rose] for the journey that [she is] taking."

Check out the podcast here or via the embedded player below. If you use any of the quotations from this article, please credit Talk Is Jericho with an H/T to Wrestling Inc. for the transcription.