Elon Musk has taken some time off during his busy week of crushing on Donald Trump to comment on a post made by anti-trans author J.K. Rowling.
Responding to a post on his site, the tech mogul claimed that he agreed with J.K. Rowling and her stance on the use of puberty blockers on prepubescent children. This isn’t exactly a surprise considering he has made his views on trans rights more than clear in the past. I suppose these out of touch rich types have got to stick together.
What has J.K. Rowling actually said?
According to an article from PinkNews, it all kicked off when the author shared a clip from TalkTV featuring the culture secretary of the UK Labour Party defending a ban on puberty blockers. The drug is currently banned from being prescribed to children under the age of 18 in the U.K., however, the new government promised in its manifesto to “remove indignities for trans people,” which includes lifting the ban.
The video shared to X by Rowling prompted responses from both sides of the argument with psychiatrist Jack Turban (@jack_turban) sharing a paper that found those who had access to puberty blockers to treat adolescent gender dysphoria had better mental health outcomes. The two continue bickering with Rowling doing her best to discredit Turban as a psychiatrist by sharing articles from right-wing sources rather than addressing his actual argument.
Replying to another user in the same thread who claimed that we have “100 years of evidence that transitioning lessens or cures gender dysphoria,” Rowling flat-out denies this and claims that the best thing for gender dysphoria is letting nature take its course, i.e. letting children go through puberty.
She shares an article from 2022 that cites a study that looked into the effect of social gender transition. It claims that for a percentage of those that did not undergo SGT their gender dysmorphia symptoms decreased or even disappeared.
Elon Musk agrees
Back in May, Musk responded to one of Rowling’s posts, cautioning her that she needed to cool it with her anti-trans remarks. He recommended “posting interesting and positive content on other matters.” He basically told her to get a hobby. So it sounds like he might have been getting tired of the constant trans hate coming from the author.
Regardless, Elon still hopped on the bandwagon to call the use of puberty blockers “deeply disturbing” this week. So, we now know that he’s not against bashing trans rights, it just seems he prefers it in moderation. He’s more of a casual hater, whereas Rowling’s a pro.
Most of the responses strongly agreed with Musk and Rowling, with one individual saying it’s a parent’s job to “prevent young people from making permanent life altering decisions.” Another, who claims they underwent medical surgery to treat gender dysphoria, wished they were “given the chance to just grow up without surgery and hormones.”
Despite what Musk, Rowling, and their followers may think, there has been a plethora of research done into gender dysmorphia in adolescents, and more often than not it has been found that gender-affirming care leads to increased life satisfaction.