'Sign language is woke now': Outrage over right wing's new culture war

Add sign language to the growing list of right-wing culture attacks sprouting up among conservative voices as Donald Trump's inauguration fast approaches.

Critics began to pounce after conservative influencer Charlie Kirk during his Wednesday podcast called for the elimination of sign language interpreters as emergency officials in California delivered remarks on the ongoing wildfire disaster.

“I mean, this is just over the top,” Kirk said on his show. “It's a distraction is what it is.”

By Friday, New York Post columnist Miranda Devine and conservative activist Christopher Rufo also aired their disapproval.

“I'm sorry, but we have to stop with the ridiculous sign language interpreters, who turn serious press conferences into a farce,” Rufo told his followers on X. “There are closed captions on all broadcast channels and streaming services. No wild human gesticulators necessary.”

Devine replied to Rufo’s post with her own hot take: “I actually think that’s the point of them. It’s to reinforce our powerlessness.”

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Their comments were met with outrage on social media.

“Sign language is woke now,” Tony Martin, a comedian and host of the Sizzletown podcast wrote on Bluesky.

“Charlie Kirk was whining about sign language interpreters giving information about the California wildfires on TV,” artist Candee Corliss wrote Friday on Bluesky. “Is there a bottom to his utter lack of human decency?”

“i don’t understand how, psychologically, a person gets to a place where they interpret sign language as some kind of attack or imposition on their life,” New York Times opinion columnist Jamelle Bouie posted on Bluesky. “like, what the f--- is wrong with you?”

“Chris Rufo thinks that ASL is 'Woke,'" photographer Kelly Stuart wrote in her own Bluesky post. “He’s running out of targets.”

Prominent conservatives in recent weeks have targeted diversity, equity and inclusion, or DEI, initiatives – and some on the right have even blamed DEI on the disastrous California wildfires. But this appears to be the first time sign language has come under attack.