June 4, 2023

Hours After SpaceX Postponed a Liftoff, Elon Musk Boosted a Transphobic Tweet

And it wasn’t the first time this Pride month.

Win McNamee/Getty

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Just hours after Musk’s space flight company, SpaceX, delayed the launch of a cargo capsule on Saturday morning, the billionaire launched something else: a needlessly bad tweet.

At 2:17 am Eastern on Saturday, SpaceX announced on Twitter it had delayed the launch of its CRS-28 mission, which aims to carry supplies from Florida to the International Space Station, citing weather concerns and “vehicle preparations.” The new launch is set for Monday.

A little over five hours later, the company’s founder and CEO weighed in on a controversy involving a transgender student using the girls’ locker room at a Vermont high school.

In response to a tweet from Riley Gaines, a former collegiate swimmer who has advocated against allowing trans students to compete in women’s sports, Musk voiced support for a Vermont high school student who was reportedly disciplined after trying to prevent a fellow student, who is trans, from using the girls’ locker room. (Gaines’ tweet misgenders the trans student.) Referring to the incident, Musk replied to Gaines, “incredibly unjust.” 

As Fox News noted, it’s not the first time this week—which, notably, marked the beginning of Pride Month—that Musk felt the need to opine on trans rights. After Twitter blocked the premiere of the Daily Wire‘s transphobic documentary, “What Is a Woman?,” Musk called it a “mistake.”

“This was a mistake by many people at Twitter,” he said. “It is definitely allowed.”

Anyway, despite Musk’s unfortunate views, the SpaceX cargo capsule launch is actually pretty cool. In addition to bringing food and other provisions for the ISS, it’ll also carry with it several new experiments, including one from North Carolina high school student Pristine Onohua, which investigates how space may alter our genes.

Beginning 20 minutes before liftoff at 11:47 a.m. Eastern on Monday, you can watch a live stream here.

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