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Tesla CEO Elon Musk is under fire for helping propagate disinformation about trans people.
Musk recently engaged with a tweet full of fallacies about trangender healthcare from the cleverly named American Accountability Foundation, a Republican dark-money operation that masquerades as a non-profit dedicated to holding the administration of Democratic President Joe Biden "accountable."
The AAF's tweet attempted to spark outrage by pointing out children as young as four have visited a transgender health clinic at a South Carolina medical school, insinuating the medical school was trying to influence children into becoming trans.
Musk, in a reply to the tweet, did AAF's dirty work for it by asking if four year olds were receiving gender-affirming hormone treatments—a thing that does not happen and is not mentioned anywhere in the document the AAF's tweet cites.
\u201c@ExposingBiden @MUSCkids Is it really true that four-year-olds are receiving hormone treatment?\u201d— American Accountability Foundation (@American Accountability Foundation) 1663362193
The AAF's tweet cites a report from the Medical University of South Carolina about the increasing rate of children seeking transgender healthcare at its pediatric endocrinology clinic.
The AAF highlighted a statistic in the report which said the average age of the first visit to its pediatric transgender clinic over the past 10 years was 13.6 years, with the age of all patients ranging from 4 to 18.
The report goes on to state:
"In the future, hopefully more patients and at younger ages will be referred to affirming providers so that medical options such as pubertal suppression and mental health support can be discussed with patients and families."
This is pretty innocuous stuff.
The stated statistics are about the first visit to the clinic—likely a consultation meeting to discuss potential healthcare options, not an appointment for hormone treatments.
And the clinic hopes "more patients and at younger ages" will come to its clinic for guidance to avoid adverse health outcomes.
But of course, the AAF's goal was to insinuate something untoward has been going on at the Medical University of South Carolina. They didn't come right out and say four-year-olds are receiving hormone treatments though.
Musk said that for them.
In response to Musk's question "Is it really true that four-year-olds are receiving hormone treatment?"
No, it isn't true, because four year olds don't even have active puberty hormones, as we all should have learned in school. And nothing in AAF's tweet even suggested such treatments were happening.
But now many of Musk's legions of acolytes who parrot his every word think so.
And in a time when a horrifying spate of far-right attacks on children's hospitals all over the country have resulted in incidents like Boston Children's Hospital receiving bomb threats for providing transgender healthcare, that's the definition of dangerous.
You'd think the richest man in the world would be smarter than this, or at least able to Google it, especially a man like Musk who himself has an 18-year-old transgender daughter.
You'd apparently be wrong.
Musk's tweet immediately had the impact it was likely intended to have—whipping right-wingers into a tizzy about preschoolers being given hormone replacement therapy, a thing which, to reiterate, isn't done.
And it left many more informed people furious.
\u201c@elonmusk @ExposingBiden @MUSCkids Maybe you can look it up or even personally call a reliable resource, richest man on the planet Earth.\u201d— American Accountability Foundation (@American Accountability Foundation) 1663362193
\u201c@elonmusk @ExposingBiden @MUSCkids This is a disturbing dog-whistle tweet. And it\u2019s doing precisely as intended.\u201d— American Accountability Foundation (@American Accountability Foundation) 1663362193
\u201c@elonmusk @ExposingBiden @MUSCkids Of course not, for God's sake Elon...\u201d— American Accountability Foundation (@American Accountability Foundation) 1663362193
\u201c@elonmusk @ExposingBiden @MUSCkids Read @enn_nafnlaus\u2019s reply and relax. You fell for sensationalist headlines (again)\u2026\ud83d\ude22 \n\nPlease return to loving humanity and stop inciting hatred against those who don\u2019t harm anyone else with their most private and personal decisions. \n\nhttps://t.co/QfZ3yc3Jom\u201d— American Accountability Foundation (@American Accountability Foundation) 1663362193
\u201c@elonmusk @ExposingBiden @MUSCkids If you are genuinely asking...No. \n\nNowhere does it say the ages of kids who received ANY treatments.\n\nAlso, read the whole thing, including what these kids are going through.\u201d— American Accountability Foundation (@American Accountability Foundation) 1663362193
\u201c@elonmusk @ExposingBiden @MUSCkids No because you can\u2019t take HRT until puberty. Can you read? Nowhere can someone take HRT pre-puberty. This is just misinformation based off of kids being recommended for therapy to gender clinics for dysphoria.\u201d— American Accountability Foundation (@American Accountability Foundation) 1663362193
\u201c@elonmusk @ExposingBiden @MUSCkids No - and stop contributing to misinformation\u201d— American Accountability Foundation (@American Accountability Foundation) 1663362193
\u201c@elonmusk @ExposingBiden @MUSCkids This is just fear mongering that you are contributing to. Maybe take a look in the mirror and ask yourself why your oldest child disowned you and changed their name.\u201d— American Accountability Foundation (@American Accountability Foundation) 1663362193
\u201c@elonmusk @ExposingBiden @MUSCkids Is it really true the CEO of the world\u2019s most valuable automaker feels the need to give oxygen to something that you can prove is false in less time than it takes to spec a M3?\n\nNo. It\u2019s not true, but your inner transphobia is showing and every trans person pays when that happens\u201d— American Accountability Foundation (@American Accountability Foundation) 1663362193
\u201cNo, but now idiots will think it is. You suck, man.\u201d— Alex Halpern (@Alex Halpern) 1663515075
Musk has made many transphobic comments in the past.
He is apparently so dedicated to his transphobic views he's willing to sacrifice his relationship with his own child over it. His trans daughter petitioned the Los Angeles County Superior Court in June for a new name and birth certificate because she no longer wants to be associated with her father in any way.