This week, Twitter CEO Elon Musk criticized the lieutenant governor of Minnesota, who is a Democrat, for comments made at an event where Democratic Governor Tim Walz put into effect an executive order requiring state bodies to supply “gender-affirming” healthcare, including surgery.
At the gathering, Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan was wearing a shirt that depicted a dagger and had the slogan "Protect Trans Kids" printed on it.
She was emphatic: “This is health care which preserves and protects lives.” She continued, “Our responsibility as grown-ups is to lend an ear to what our children tell us about themselves and to take it seriously. That’s what being a good parent is all about.”
Flanagan was harshly criticized online for her extreme statements, Musk included.
Musk argued that children should not be exposed to propaganda from adults and that it is a mistake to allow them to undergo drastic and irreversible surgery or take sterilizing drugs before their personalities are fully formed, at least until the age of 18.
When adults give them propaganda, it doesn't help.
All children experience a period of uncertainty before their personality is firmly established.
Hence, we must not permit drastic, permanent operations or sterilizing medications that they could later regret until they are at least 18 years old.
-- Tweet from Elon Musk posted on March 16, 2023.
Musk views the transgender issue as being significant due to the fact that one of his children has declared themselves to be transgender and publicly criticized him.
In an interview with the Financial Times in the fall, Musk attributed his biological son's attitude toward him to the extreme Left, the paper reported.
According to Musk, it is a stringent form of communism and a general belief that wealth equals wickedness. He admits that his relationship with his other kids may change in the future, but for now, he has positive relations with them all. He remarks, “I can’t be victorious with each one.”
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This week, Flanagan made a statement in response to Walz declaring that prohibitions on “gender-affirming” care constitute persecution. Walz declared that Minnesota will remain a warm and accepting place, free of any type of persecution like what is occurring in other states.
He specifically mentioned South Dakota, the state next to Minnesota, where Gov. Kristi Noem enacted a law in February prohibiting the distribution of puberty blockers, hormone therapy, and sex-change operations to people under the age of 18.
Governor Walz confidently declared that "whatever a group of people in Pierre may have been contemplating, which would have made life more unpleasant and hazardous, won't be taking place in Minnesota."
The Minnesota legislature will contemplate a proposal from a transgender representative, which would designate Minnesota as a “trans refuge state” and forbid the state from abiding by court decrees or child protection regulations from other states that would stop them from providing “gender-affirming” health care in Minnesota.
The Iowa senate approved a bill that forbids physicians from offering minors under the age of 18 puberty blockers, hormone treatments, or sex-change operations.
In 2021, Arkansas became the first state to prohibit sex-change operations for minors, with Utah enacting a similar ban in January. Florida's Board of Medicine and Board of Osteopathic Medicine, backed by Governor Ron DeSantis, barred these procedures for those under 18; Mississippi Governor Tate Reeves and Tennessee's Bill Lee, both Republicans, passed laws that forbid sex-change operations for minors.
Hank Berrien's input was included in this report.