Did Michigan Senate candidate Abdul El-Sayed say, "Your daughters are going to see male genitalia anyway, so who cares if they see it in their locker room," during his appearance on CBS' "60 Minutes"? No, that's not true: El-Sayed never mentioned male genitalia during the interview. He was asked about the rights of parents to control what is taught in their children's schools, including having transgender kids on sports teams. He responded that the students have access to any information via the internet and parents are responsible for teaching children what is important to their family.
The claim appeared in a post (archived here) by @crusade_enjoyer on X on Nov. 1, 2026. It read:
'Your daughters are going to see male genitalia anyway, so who cares if they see it in their locker room.' -- Abdul El-Sayed
This is what the post looked like on X at the time of writing:
(Image source: post by @crusade_enjoyer on X.)
"Your daughters are going to see male genitalia anyway, so who cares if they see it in their locker room." -- Abdul El-Sayed https://t.co/n5159VC0ns
-- Fanatic 🇺🇸 (@crusade_enjoyer) November 2, 2026
In the "60 Minutes" interview that aired on Nov. 1, 2026, El-Sayed was asked about the rights of parents to control their children's education and about transgender kids on sports teams. A video of the interview was posted on the "60 Minutes" YouTube account. Here is a transcript of El-Sayed's conversation with Ross Douthat, beginning at 44:27:
RD: What about the rights of parents to control over their children's education because a lot of places where there's tension between Islam and Muslim voters and what I'm calling cultural liberalism around what is taught in school. What happens with transgender kids on sports teams and so on, right? Like these are places where rights are in conflict, right? Do you, what do you think happens there?
AES: I don't know that that's actually true. I think we manufacture these social issues because here's the thing about it, Ross. You have an iPhone in your pocket probably or is it an iPhone or a Samsung? You have a phone in your pocket, right?
You can get access to everything and anything in the whole world, all the world's information in your pocket. The notion somehow that you are going to prevent your child from being exposed to something that you may find disagreeable and that that is going to be because of school is so profoundly outdated because of course you have all the information and they have all the information. So here's the thing about it.
I think it's really important for us to recognize that the free flow of information is actually a beautiful thing. It's really important and the most important thing you can do is not try to protect a person from seeing a thing. It's about trying to make sure that as you coach your kid through the world that you are engaging with them and saying here's what I believe. Here's what you may see in the world. You get to make your choices about who you're going to be in the world. But that's going to require us to make do with the fact that like the internet is a real thing.
Here is the video from the "60 Minutes" YouTube channel:
