Piers Morgan launches attack on ‘queer nature’ project at Kew Gardens
"Why can't we just have straight plants?"
Piers Morgan has launched an attack on Kew Gardens’ upcoming Queer Nature exhibit.
The project celebrates diversity in plants and fungi ‘that [challenges] traditional expectations.’
It will also include a series of Queer Nature After Hours events, where attendees can enjoy music and cabaret from LGBTQ artists and access to the Queer Nature exhibition.
But speaking on Sky News Australia, Morgan saw fit to debate the project’s very existence, while also taking issue with the scientific fact that fungi can have tens of thousands of genders.
“Imagine if I announced tomorrow that I’m going to have a ‘straight day’ at Chelsea Flower Show” – Piers Morgan
“My question for all this is: why?” said the former Good Morning Britain host during the debate with Attitude columnist James Barr, adding: “There’s nothing sexual about mushrooms.”
“We’ve just had Pride month, where the entire month was taken up with turning everything LGBTQ,” the TV star furthermore complained.
“Imagine if I announced tomorrow that I’m going to have a ‘straight day’ at Chelsea Flower Show… you would go completely nuts!”
“I just don’t understand why you care,” countered Barr, adding: “You’re the one hosting a debate on an international platform about gay mushrooms.”
On the official Kew Gardens website, Queer Nature is described as ‘a large-scale suspended artwork and a horticultural installation which explore the amazing world of plants and fungi … Hear from Kew scientists, horticulturists, writers and many more leading voices on their individual perspectives on queerness and nature. Plus watch out for plenty of weekend and After Hours events.’
Morgan has a history of controversial statements about LGBTQ issues. In October 2019, as a petition for him to be sacked from Good Morning Britain over his views on gender reached 6,000 signatures (it would peak at 95,000), he said: “I support those who transition, just as I’ve always loudly supported gay rights. But I don’t support the ridiculous notion of 100 genders, and most sensible people agree with me.” He went on to add: “You can’t remove me; I’m currently identifying as a penguin so it would be animal cruelty.”
In February 2023, Morgan wrote in his newspaper column that trans ally and outgoing First Minister of Scotland Nicola Sturgeon’s inability to say, “a woman is an adult human female […] played a part in her downfall.” He added that her “Gender Recognition Reform bill, passed in December and then rightfully blocked by Rishi Sunak, would give a legal rubber stamp to this woke nonsense, and represents a shameful betrayal of women.”