Brooklyn Nets forward Michael Porter Jr. has set off a fresh online debate after revisiting a 2023 encounter in Taiwan on his Curious Mike podcast and raising the question of whether transgender people should disclose their gender history before becoming intimate with someone.
Porter said a woman named Xiao A La reached out to him on Instagram while he was in Taiwan for appearances. He said he was attracted to her and met her in person, with the two communicating through Google Translate and spending about an hour together before someone snapped their photo. According to Porter, he did not know at the time that she was transgender.
“I had no idea who that woman was and no idea she was transgender,” Porter said, according to clips and recaps of the podcast episode. He also said, “Over there, the surgeries are so good you can’t tell.”
From there, Porter widened the conversation to a bigger issue around dating and disclosure. He asked whether a transgender person should tell someone about their gender history before things become physical.
Jason Lee, who joined Porter on the podcast, said everyone “has a right to know what they’re getting into.” He also pointed to the safety risks involved, noting that there have been times when men reacted with violence after learning a partner is transgender. Lee’s advice was to have that conversation once it’s clear the other person is genuinely interested, but to make sure it happens in a safe environment.
Porter said he agreed with that approach.
The comments quickly spread online, with some posts portraying Porter’s view as a demand that transgender women “ID themselves.” Porter did not call for a government identification rule. Instead, he said transgender women should tell potential male partners about their gender history before intimacy.
He said the Taiwan moment took him by surprise again when the photo surfaced years later. Friends contacted him after the image made its way back to the United States and asked if he had been “caught” with a transgender woman. Porter said the whole thing “caught me completely off guard.”
He also said he still does not “technically know” the woman’s history and added that he “still [doesn’t] care” about the reaction online.
The exchange has stirred a broader discussion about consent, privacy and safety, though Porter left one major point unresolved: he questioned whether there should be consequences for not disclosing, but did not say what those consequences should be.
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