damn ocean". Uygur would delete and later apologize for his comments. In a 2011 episode of The Young Turks, Uygur and his co host Ana Kasparian dismissed actress Olivia Munn's sexual harassment allegations against director Brett Ratner and Uygur defended Ratner bragging about having sex with Munn saying that she likely “drove him crazy”. Uygur would later apologize for his comments. In 2013 Uygur made lewd remarks about women's physical appearance in Miami. In 2016 Uygur defended Harvard men soccer team rating female students and sex acts they wanted to enact on them. In 2017 a TYT employee told TheWrap that Uygur made female employees feel uncomfortable when inappropriately discussing women. Response to unionization of TYT staff In February 2020, when the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees sought to unionize The Young Turks, Uygur controversially urged his employees not to. Uygur allegedly fired employee Jacorey Palmer for his pro union activities, and according to an anonymous TYT employee, Uygur withheld bonuses and increases from employees who were involved in the union drive. Uygur denied the charges. Uygur's position towards unions was considered hypocritical due to him being supportive of progressive causes. Electoral history Personal life Uygur was born and raised in a secular Muslim family. He now identifies as an agnostic and as a cultural Muslim. In 2010, along with Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Uygur accepted the "Emperor Has No Clothes Award" from the Freedom From Religion Foundation and later the Humanist Media Award from the American Humanist Association. He is married to Wendy Lang—a marriage and family therapist—and they have two children. Uygur is the uncle of political commentator and Twitch streamer Hasan Piker, one of the most watched Twitch streamers in the world. Uygur, once a Republican, slowly transitioned away from the Republican Party and conservative politics, citing the decision to invade Iraq as a "seminal moment" in that transition. Uygur has claimed to be a progressive, but his comments in regard to women, his treatment of women and anti-worker actions at his own company, as well as his denial of the Armenian genocide have belied this claim. Uygur is a supporter of Bernie Sanders. References Further reading External links 1970 births 21st-century American journalists Activists from California Air America people American abortion-rights activists American anti–Iraq War activists American agnostics American male non-fiction writers American media critics American online journalists American political commentators American secularists American social commentators