Joe Rogan used a recent episode of The Joe Rogan Experience to react to a viral video out of Portland, where a group wearing shirts printed with “XX” and “XY” was asked to leave a sports bar that caters largely to women’s sports fans. Rogan, joined by guests Ehsan Ahmad and Deric Poston, watched footage of the confrontation.
Talking about the bar incident, Rogan says, “So, in Portland, this couple went to a sports bar that features mostly women’s sports. And so, the guy went in with an XX-XY chromosome shirt on and they kicked him out because the shirt was making people uncomfortable.”
The employee is heard saying, “I have had complaints by customers already.”
The woman, making the clip, responds, “I don’t understand what’s wrong with this shirt. There’s nothing wrong with these shirts,” before adding, “I’m asking y’all to leave.”
The employee then says, “If I have to call authorities to get y’all removed, I will.”
Rogan and his guests found the entire premise absurd, especially given the setting. “It is also very funny to go into a woman’s sports bar with a chromosome shirt,” guest Ehsan Ahmad said.
Rogan then responded by questioning the logic, “But why? What would it happen if it’s women’s sports? Like this is where things have gotten so weird. Like if there’s anything that’s supposed to be pro-women sports, it’s the recognition that there’s a difference between men and women, which is what Title IX was all about.”
The group argued the shirts simply stated a biological fact rather than making any statement about the sport itself.
“He’s not even saying anything about the sport. He’s just saying XX-XY chromosomes,” Ahmad stated.
Rogan connected the incident to a theme he returned to throughout the conversation: that agreed-upon social narratives, whether in tech, politics, or elsewhere, can become so rigid that stating plain reality is treated as offensive. He pointed to the moment as an example of how much cultural ground has shifted.
