a small favor

Elon Musk has one request of his gay friends

Elon Musk
Elon Musk (Photo: Shutterstock)

Elon Musk says he has one ask of his gay friends: “Have children.”

Musk was commenting on X (where else?), following the fallout from his interview with Don Lemon.

X (formerly Twitter) agreed to hire Don Lemon to exclusively broadcast his new interview show. Lemon interviewed Musk for the launch episode. However, Musk did not like Lemon’s questions. The veteran CNN reporter grilled Musk about his worldview and how X has changed since he took it over.

Many accounts previously barred have rejoined. LGBTQ+ advocates accuse the platform of allowing hate speech to proliferate under the guise of “free speech”.

Following the interview, Musk informed Lemon his contract was canceled. Lemon’s show now airs on YouTube instead.

In an interview yesterday, Lemon suggested to tech journalist Kara Swisher that Musk may have been uncomfortable “Sitting in front of a gay Black guy.”

This has prompted a big reaction online. Musk, who is the father of a trans child, has made little secret of his opposition to trans rights and gender-affirming care for minors. Just yesterday he reshared some right-wing hysteria about the LGBTQ+ advocates “coming for your children.”

“They are,” agreed Musk.

Musk himself says he regards his politics as “centrist”. He’s simply engaged in a “battle to the death with the anti-civilizational woke mind virus.”

In response, someone pushed Musk about whether he “loves gays” or not.

Musk replied, “My observation is that people are born one way or another – it is not a choice.

“People should find mutual love and happiness where their heart leads them.

“I only ask of my gay friends that they have children for the continuance of civilization.”

Falling fertility rates

Why Musk would ask gay people to have children is unclear. There are records of same-sex attraction going back to ancient civilizations. The presence of a minority of gay people in any population does not doom a civilization. In fact, with the earth’s population hovering around eight billion, many would argue the world is having too many babies.

Then again, Musk might be responding to a fall in fertility rates among Western nations. Earlier this week, research suggested 75% of nations face “underpopulation” by 2050.

For a population to stay the same size, countries must achieve a ‘replacement’ level fertility rate of 2.1 kids per woman. However, that’s fallen significantly in high-income countries.

“Powerhouses such as Britain and the US will have to become reliant on immigration to avoid the ‘immense’ consequences the situation threatens,” screamed a story in the Daily Mail.

The topic is something Musk himself has talked about before. In 2017, he said the Earth’s population is, “accelerating towards collapse but few seem to notice or care.”

Whatever he was talking about, Musk’s “ask” of his gay friends prompted a divided opinion online. Some of his slavish followers seemed disappointed Musk wasn’t more anti-gay.

Musk, 52, is clearly happy to do his part to boost the earth’s population. He has ten children to date. He’s also famously a workaholic, and some questioned his own parenting skills.

Others wanted to know more about these supposed “friends”.

And others just plain disagreed with his analysis.

Gay activist and actor George Takie went viral with his response. He asked, for the sake of civilization, that Musk please stop having children of his own.

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