Elon Musk just offered a take nobody asked for, on the bad-faith "debate" regarding transgender children and access to medical care — though of course, it's not the first time the Twitter owner has waded into trans reactionary rhetoric.
Responding, for some reason, to a video of Minnesota's lieutenant governor coming out in favor of trans kids' access to affirmative healthcare, Musk — who, lest we forget, has an estranged trans child of his own — echoed the invective spewed by transphobic fanaticists and the New York Times alike.
"When our children tell us who they are, it is our job as grown-ups to listen and to believe them," MN's Lt. Governor, Peggy Flanagan, said in the clip. "That's what it means to be a good parent."
"Not when they’re fed propaganda by adults," Musk said in response nearly a week after the initial post. "Moreover, every child goes through an identity crisis before their personality/identity crystallizes. Therefore, we shouldn’t allow severe, irreversible surgery or sterilizing drugs that they may regret until at least age 18."
We shouldn't have to break down why the Tesla CEO's mealy-mouthed take is flatly wrong, but in the interest of public service journalism, we'll note that every aspect of his response, from thefact that he's been sock-puppeted propagandato the patent misinformation regarding children getting surgery or being given "sterilizing" drugs, is, as we mentioned before, lacking. To say the least.
Again: Musk himself is father to a trans kid— his daughter, who last summer, along with changing her name and her gender marker, said she "no longer live[s] with or wish[es] to be related to my biological father in any shape or form."
While we can't know his daughter's precise reasons for wishing to distance herself in such a bold manner, it's not unreasonable to imagine this all might hold a clue. That's to say nothing of what else Musk has opined on trans people — one example of which happened when a trans woman just so happened to be embroiled in drama with him.
Indeed, almost exactly a year ago and just a few days after news leaked that his ex/baby mama Claire "Grimes" Boucher was dating government leaker and trans girl DJ extraordinaire Chelsea Manning, Musk posted a "Wojack" meme meant to mock fair-weather activists for "support[ing] the current thing," and one of those "things" included, per a flag shown in the background of the image macro, a transgender pride flag.
Two years prior, Grimes publicly called Musk out on Twitter while the pair were still dating after he tweeted, apropos to nothing, that he thinks "pronouns suck."
"I love you but please turn off ur phone or give me a dall [sic]," the electronic artist responded to her then-boyfriend in a since-deleted tweet. "I cannot support hate. Please stop this. I know this isn’t your heart."
Given what he's said and done since that 2020 exchange, it appears clear that Grimes was wrong about Musk's "heart" — and that the owner of Twitter has, it seems, come out in support of restricting the rights of children (and, likely, adults).
Whether or not his politics inform the way speech about this issue continues on one of the largest social media platforms in the world is, at this point, anyone's guess.
More on Elon's bigotry: Elon Musk Finally Relents and Apologizes for Mocking Disabled Twitter Ex-Employee
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