If Fox News was purposely trying to destroy itself, what would it be doing differently? That was the reaction after the right-leaning network fired Tucker Carlson in April, leaving its primetime line-up in shambles. But apparently, the questionable decision-making runs much deeper than just who fills the 8 PM hour.

A new report from The Daily Signal, written by Mary Margaret Olohan, exposes just how woke Fox News has gotten even as it still tries to present itself as a sane conservative alternative for news to its viewers. Specifically, Olohan got ahold of the network’s employee handbook, which includes a section on “gender transition” that you’d expect to find at Disney or MSNBC.

Fox also offers to help employees come up with a “Workplace Transition Plan." More on that in our story.

— Mary Margaret Olohan (@MaryMargOlohan) May 22, 2023

Fox News employees are allowed to use bathrooms that align with their gender identity, rather than their biological sex, and permitted to dress in alignment with their preferred gender. They must also be addressed by their preferred name and pronouns in the workplace.

These are just a few of the policies outlined in the company handbook, dated January 2021, a copy of which was shared with The Daily Signal. Fox also offers to help employees come up with a “Workplace Transition Plan” to ease their gender transition at work.

This tracks with something I’ve been critical of regarding Fox News for a while. They will write clickbait stories or run clickbait segments on their shows illustrating the absurdity of transgender ideology, yet they’ll use “preferred pronouns” in those same articles and segments. It’s a completely incoherent approach that seeks to cynically juice clicks and views of being critical of transgenderism while at the same time giving up transgenderism’s entire premise.

What this leaked handbook confirms is that Fox News’ internal policies are indeed no different than you’d see at any left-wing corporation. Putting aside my personal opposition to all of what transgender ideology encompasses, that might be fine within the broader business world if Fox News were just honest about it. Instead, the leadership there seems to be trying to straddle the fence, pushing insane woke ideology on employees internally while pretending to be part of the case for sanity externally. That’s a problem for the network’s credibility, in my view.

According to Olohan’s report, Tucker Carlson and Matt Walsh also found themselves at odds with Fox News’ higher-ups over transgenderism.

When trans-identifying TikTok star Mulvaney was first gaining prominence last year, producers for “Tucker Carlson Tonight” had to fight to be able to refer to Mulvaney with male pronouns in the show’s chyrons,” the former “Tucker Carlson Tonight” producer told The Daily Signal.

Carlson’s team also fought to be able to host The Daily Wire’s Matt Walsh on trans issues, the producer said, but the team was repeatedly met with resistance from Fox on this due to Walsh’s frank condemnation of transgender ideology. This may have also been due in part to Fox’s view of The Daily Wire as a competitor, the former producer suggested.

In a phone interview with The Daily Signal, Walsh said he was aware of the alleged blacklisting and believes it began after he slammed Fox for the June 2022 segment praising a child’s gender transition. Since then, Walsh appeared on “Tucker Carlson Tonight” a few times, but he was aware that Carlson’s team had to fight for these appearances.

I’m not suggesting that Carlson was fired over pushing back on Fox News’ left-wing transgender policies. All I’m saying is that it’s a data point in what he and others were up against. To have to fight a supposedly conservative network in order to describe someone based on objective reality is absurd. Dylan Mulvaney is a man.

Matt Walsh being blacklisted from the network is also an older story that suddenly makes a lot more sense now. Walsh heavily criticized Fox News for a segment that promoted a California family’s “transition” of their young child, describing the move as an “inspiration.” Scott Weiner, a radical California legislator, was cited in the report. The Daily Wire podcast host hasn’t been seen on the network since.

This is a problem that is bigger than just Fox News. The slow, encroaching march of transgender ideology, even into conservative spaces is happening. We’ve seen it with Caitlyn Jenner, who once accepted a “Woman of the Year” award, being normalized as a “good” model of transgenderism. But as I’ve said before, you can’t piecemeal out transgender ideology. If you accept one part of it, you are accepting all of it, including the idea that children can transition.

Regardless, Fox News needs to have some deep introspection because if this is the path they want to continue down, it’s not going to work out well for them.

In response to the Daily Signal’s article, a spokesperson for FOX News told RedState: “FOX News Media is compliant with all Human Rights laws mandated by the cities and states in which we operate, including New York and California.”

(NOTE: This piece was edited post-publication to include a statement from FOX News.)