(LifeSiteNews) — Elon Musk on Friday skewered the practice of “gender transitions” for children in a show of support for Florida’s ban on transgender interventions for minors.
“Any parent or doctor who sterilizes a child before they are a consenting adult should go to prison for life,” Musk tweeted in response to a comment noting that Florida governor Ron DeSantis has affirmed a state ban on so-called “sex changes” for children.
Any parent or doctor who sterilizes a child before they are a consenting adult should go to prison for life
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) April 14, 2023
Sterilization is a result of the use of puberty blockers followed by cross-sex hormones, which are admittedly taken in succession the “vast majority” of the time by minors who wish to “change” their sex. Critics of “transgender” interventions for minors argue that it is child abuse to allow a 16-year old — who isn’t considered old enough to vote, join the military, or even consent to most medical treatment — to be permanently sterilized, as if they were capable of informed consent to such a decision.
Musk’s statement is arguably the strongest rebuke of “gender transition” interventions for minors that has yet been made by a prominent public figure, and is particularly significant coming from a man described as “the most influential person in the world,” according to Business Insider.
A 2022 YouGov poll found that Americans are largely split along political lines over the question of whether minors should have access to “gender transition” interventions such as puberty blockers. However, a relatively large segment of respondents (27 percent) were unsure of their position on the issue, and the phrasing of the question potentially skewed the results, misleadingly framing “puberty blocking drugs” as “temporarily” preventing puberty.
Such a split of opinion along party lines is seen among government officials as well. On April 7, the attorneys general of 17 Republican states filed an amicus brief in support of Florida’s regulation under Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis prohibiting the use of state funds to bankroll mutilating transgender interventions for minors.
Florida has gone even further in preventing harm to children under the guise of “gender affirmation”: Under DeSantis’ watch, Florida’s Board of Medicine has consistently voted to ban the use of puberty blockers, cross-sex hormones, or mutilating gender “transition” surgeries for minors.
Florida’s stance on prohibiting gender interventions for minors is backed up by studies suggesting that four out of five children who experience confusion about their sex outgrow it before reaching adulthood.
While transgender advocates often attempt to cite date to argue that so-called “gender-affirming care” helps reduce suicidal ideation, a 2021 JAMA study found that efforts “to empirically demonstrate mental health benefits from gender-affirming surgery have generated mixed results.”
Moreover, that study pointed out that a 2020 correction to “the largest existing study on this subject to our knowledge” had found “no mental health benefit from gender-affirming surgery after comparison with a control group of [gender-confused] people who had not yet undergone surgery.”
In fact, according to research that surveilled actual outcomes spanning three decades, people who obtained so-called “gender-affirming surgeries” were “19 times more likely to kill themselves” than the general population.
Musk himself has a son who identifies as “transgender,” from whom he is estranged. Musk has blamed the rift on the influence of “neo-Marxists” who he said lead America’s elite schools and universities and teach “full-on communism. … and a general sentiment that if you’re rich, you’re evil.”
Two weeks ago, Musk blasted the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) for allowing the gender-confused William “Lia” Thomas to compete against women.