Michael Knowles Faces 25 LGBT Activists On ‘Surrounded’

Daily Wire host Michael Knowles debated 25 LGBT activists on gay marriage, transgenderism, and pride parades on the latest episode of “Surrounded.” 

The show features Knowles, a conservative author and podcast host, surrounded by 25 people who disagree with him — in this case, LGBT activists. After Knowles asserts a claim, the activists race to debate him until they are either voted out by their peers or their time expires. 

Knowles’ first assertion, that gay marriages does not exist, was met with an activist claiming the ancient Mayan civilization recognized gay marriage. However, when Knowles asked the activist to explain, they were at a loss and asked fellow activists to look it up on Google. 

“What was their view of gender?” Knowles asked. “What did the Mayans think? You brought it up, you seemed so confident in this. What did the Mayans think about marriage and gender?”

“What — what, we can talk about differences in the way that they are recognized,” the activist stumbled.

“Can we? I don’t know that you know the difference,” Knowles pressed. “You said that there was a difference, but you haven’t explained how there was a difference. … Do you have an answer?”

“People can look up right now … on Google,” the activist responded, gesturing toward fellow activists. 

Knowles laughed and summed up his point. “What people usually do, is they say, ‘Well look, I’m sure that there were all different types of marriage throughout history all over the world.’ And what I’m telling you is, there actually hasn’t been.” 

Further backing his assertion, Knowles explained that children have the right to both a mother and a father. “Children do very poorly when they are raised by two men or two women,” Knowles said.

“What about the right of a kid to have his natural mother and father?” he posed. “When the rubber meets the road in gay marriage … it’s the ability to adopt children and in some cases, acquire children by going to the ‘baby store’ and purchasing the eggs of one woman and renting the womb of another woman, and raising children, depriving them intentionally of their natural mothers, and that’s very wrong. And that does infringe on the rights of kids.”

Knowles also claimed that the ideology of transgenderism should be eradicated totally from public life, a claim he’s previously articulated. Knowles explained the harms of the ideology, specifically for girls and women who are having their spaces invaded and opportunities taken from them by males. 

Citing a recent United Nations report, Knowles explained that girls and women have lost out on nearly 900 medals at the expense of male athletes who identify as transgender. 

One activist, a man who claims to be a woman, claimed the men who won awards over females in girls and women’s sports “deserved them.”

.@michaeljknowles: Men identifying as trans women took 900 sports trophies from real women in recent years

Pro-trans activist: They didn’t take 900

Michael: *provides citation*

Pro-trans activist: Then they deserve them! pic.twitter.com/wsvJt14u2t

— Mary Margaret Olohan (@MaryMargOlohan) February 16, 2025

Noting the activist’s prior claim that trans athletes were actually not taking awards from females, Knowles rebutted, “Okay, it’s not happening, and they deserved them. Okay, that is the logic I hear from the pro-trans crowd.”

Later in the episode, Knowles claimed that transgenderism is a social contagion, referencing how fast the ideology is spreading, specifically among youths. Disagreeing with Knowles, a male who believes he’s a female told Knowles that his symptoms of psychological despair and confusion are “gone” since undergoing hormone therapy.

Knowles pointedly asked when the activist received the medical treatment, to which he revealed it was only one year ago.

“I’m telling you it’s going to come back,” Knowles told the activist, explaining that data show there can be a brief reprieve from symptoms after medical intervention, before mental health declines. 

“You’re wrong,” the activist responded. “You can’t predict the future, babe.” 

“Maybe you’ll be one of the lucky few,” Knowles said. “I’m saying statistically, you probably won’t be.” 

“I think you might be really angry at me for telling you the truth.”@michaeljknowles calmly dismantles the myth that cross-sex mimicry brings true happiness in front of a clearly struggling trans activist.

He offers a better path forward, mentioning my successful detransition. pic.twitter.com/eLH1IRCcUD

— Chloe Cole ⭐️ (@ChoooCole) February 16, 2025

“You’re talking over me because you don’t want to hear this, but I’m telling you that the largest data set, the largest study every conducted to follow the long-term outcomes of transgender-identifying people, found that not only did their suicide rates and depression not improve, their anxiety actually went up.” 

One activist told Knowles that his “energy” exposes that he actually wants to “erase LGBT people and our history.” 

“All I’ve been doing is coming here and citing historical examples and citing a lot of scientific studies and telling you explicitly that I’m talking about an ideology that is not conducive to the flourishing of anyone, and for the good of everyone, including you guys, I would like to see a restoration of sensibility. And every time I say something like that, you say, ‘Nah man, I just kinda feel the vibes that you hate us and want to erase us all.’ And I don’t know where you’re getting that from.” 

The Daily Wire’s Michael Knowles has a heated exchange with an LGBTQ+ person who claims “we are here in this room today because of black trans women,” and asks if Michael would like to see the “thong” he is wearing under his clothes. “I don’t need you to show me that.”

Knowles:… pic.twitter.com/aMs59PYNnQ

— RedWave Press (@RedWave_Press) February 16, 2025

WATCH the episode on YouTube, here.