Joe Rogan backtracks on school litter box claim, said he couldn’t verify it

Podcaster Joe Rogan said the bizarre story he told former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard about kids using a litter box at a school was probably inaccurate after a guest said it was an “urban legend” that feeds into conservative views of schools that go too far in accommodating certain identities.

Mr. Rogan said he looked into the matter and couldn’t verify it with a parent who told him about it.

“I don’t think they actually did it. I think there was discussions about doing it because there was one particularly wacky mother, but there is — it doesn’t seem that there’s any proof that they put a litter box in there,” Mr. Rogan said.

Mr. Rogan clarified the situation after telling Ms. Gabbard about it on his podcast, “The Joe Rogan Experience.”

“My friend, his wife is a school teacher and she works at a school that had to install a litter box in the girls’ room because there is a girl who’s a furry,” Mr. Rogan said. “Her mother badgered the school until they agreed to put a litter box in one of the stalls. So this girl goes into the litter room or to the girl’s room and urinates or whatever.”

A later guest said the litter box-in-school issue was a meme that grew out of the scrutiny of liberals and how they treat gender and sexual identity, prompting Mr. Rogan to admit he did some sleuthing and couldn’t confirm the story.

The idea that students who identify as cats or “furries” are accommodated with litter boxes has circulated for a while. 

Retired Army Brig. Gen. Don Bolduc, a Republican candidate for Senate, repeated the claim about a New Hampshire school. The school said it was false and rebuked the senator for not checking first, though Mr. Bolduc didn’t back down in an NBC interview.

Mr. Rogan said he was susceptible to the story because he stumbled upon a furry convention when he checked into a hotel in Pittsburgh. He heard one guest wanted a litter box in the lobby.

“Now they didn’t put a litter box into the lobby, but someone, according to this man asked him for a litter box. ‘I’m like, that is crazy,’” Mr. Rogan said.