Free Speech Cut Nonbinary Claims, Rogan Says

Adriana Stone 0 1 min read

Free Speech Cut Nonbinary Claims, Rogan Says

Joe Rogan raised a simple point on his podcast. He noticed a clear timing: the number of people identifying as non-binary and trans fell after Elon Musk took over Twitter/X. He thinks the reason is obvious.

“Have you ever seen like how people identifying as nonbinary and trans dropped off right after @elonmusk’s purchase of Twitter?”

“It’s because people got a chance to talk about it, criticize it, put up memes and call it a mental illness again.”

Here’s the video link the discussion came from:

The drop Rogan points to isn’t just talk. Research and big campus surveys show a real shift. The Manhattan Institute ran a report called “Why Are Fewer Young People Identifying as Trans?” and dug into the numbers. The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) polled over 60,000 undergraduates in 2025. Their data shows non-binary identification falling from 6.8% in 2022 and 2023 to 5.2% in 2024 and down to 3.6% in 2025.

Those are sharp changes in a short time. The pattern shows up at elite schools too. Andover Phillips Academy reported non-binary ID dropping from 9.2% in 2023 to 3% in a recent survey. Brown University went from about 5% to 2.6%.

What changed? The simplest explanation is social context. When platforms clamp down on debate, certain views and labels spread without pushback. When those platforms open up, criticism flows. People see alternative takes. Memes and mockery matter. So does honest debate.

That’s the core of Rogan’s point. Free speech didn’t create the trend; it allowed scrutiny. And scrutiny changed behavior. For many conservatives, that’s good news. It says people aren’t permanently locked into a label when dissent is allowed.

Expect this fight to keep playing out. The left pushed to limit debate for years. When that gate opened, labels and claims got tested. The numbers moved. And now the data is part of the public argument.

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