- Joe Rogan admitted his claims about schools providing litter boxes for “furry” kids were baseless.
- Rogan first made the comment in October during a podcast with former congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard.
- The claim, which has been circulating for months, has been repeatedly debunked by school officials.
A month after saying on his podcast that a school installed a litter box in the bathroom for a “furry” child, Joe Rogan has admitted his claims were baseless.
On an October 26 podcast episode with author Michael Shermer, Rogan walked back his initial comments, saying, “I don’t think they actually did it. I think there was discussions about doing it because there was one particularly wacky mother, but it doesn’t seem that there’s any proof that they put a litter box in there.”
On an episode of “The Joe Rogan Experience” last month, the podcaster told former congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard a story about how his friend’s wife “works at a school that had to install a litter box in the girls’ room because there is a girl who was a furry, who identifies as an animal.”
In the podcast, Rogan said the girl’s mother “badgered” the school “until they agreed” to the decision.
In his conversation with Shermer last week, Rogan admitted that he “fed into” the false claims. Rogan added that he had been inclined to believe the hoax because of his experience when he encountered a furry convention in Pittsburgh a decade ago.
Rogan’s original comments mirror claims that have been circulating since at least January, per a New York Times report.
Numerous school boards, including schools in Tennessee and Iowa, have since issued public statements clarifying their stance and shooting down the litter box claims. Bruce Bostelman, a conservative Republican lawmaker from Nebraska, had to retract his words after repeating the hoax on a televised debate in March, per the AP.
Rogan did not immediately respond to Insider’s request for comment sent outside regular business hours.