Tech mogul Elon Musk said his 20-year-old trans child was "dead" to him during a transphobic rant in a Daily Wire interview on The Jordan B. Peterson Podcast.
In Monday's episode, the SpaceX founder and CEO of Tesla Inc. told the far-right podcaster that gender reassignment surgery was "child mutilation and sterilization.
He also said he was "tricked" into signing off on gender-affirming care for his now estranged trans daughter, Vivian Jenna Wilson.
Wilson legally changed her name in 2022 when she turned 18.
She filed paperwork with the Los Angeles County court requesting to take her mother and Musk's ex-wife, Justine Wilson's, last name and to drop the Musk family surname, citing that she “no longer lives with or wishes to be related to [her] biological father in any way, shape or form."
Musk, who was once criticized for spreading misinformation about COVID-19 and stating that the coronavirus panic was "dumb," blamed the "death" of his trans child on the "woke mind virus."
He also committed the transgression of deadnaming Wilson to hundreds of millions of followers.
The act of deadnaming refers to a transgender or non-binary individual being called by their birth name before transitioning. When used intentionally, deadnaming invalidates or belittles one's gender identity.
“I was essentially tricked into signing documents for one of my older boys, _____,” said Musk.
“This was before I had really any understanding of what was going on and we had COVID going on, so there was a lot of confusion. I was told ______ might commit suicide.”
You can see a clip of the interview, here.
Musk continued:
“It wasn’t explained to me that puberty blockers are actually just sterilization drugs."
It's worth mentioning that puberty blockers are not "sterilization drugs."
According to the Mayo Clinic, puberty blockers are used to delay the changes of puberty in trans youth who are just starting to experience puberty.
The medicines used in the process are called Gonadotropin-releasing hormone [GnRH] analogues, which the medical center's website states do not cause permanent physical changes.
"Instead, they pause puberty. That offers a chance to explore gender identity," said the non-profit academic clinic.
Musk went on to give an inaccurate description of deadnaming, saying:
“Anyway, so I lost my son, essentially. You know, they call it deadnaming for a reason. The reason it’s called deadnaming is because your son is dead.”
He deadnamed his daughter again and referred to her as his oldest son in conclusion, saying:
“So my son ______ is dead. Killed by the woke mind virus.”
As a result of the experience, Musk said he "vowed to destroy the woke mind virus after that."
"And we’re making some progress," he added.
Social media users took to Musk's platform X (formerly Twitter) and slammed him for his transphobia and for rejecting his own child.
Musk previously spoke out against the use of preferred gender pronouns.
He mocked the preferred practice in December 2020, tweeting:
"All these pronouns are an esthetic nightmare."
That same year, he took aim at transgender and non-binary people on Twitter and declared that "pronouns suck."
Last week, Musk announced he was moving his SpaceX and X headquarters from California to Texas in response to the state's Democratic Governor, Gavin Newsom, signing a law banning school districts from requiring teachers to notify parents about changes in a student’s gender identity or sexual orientation without the child’s permission.
Musk called Newsom's official endorsement "the final straw," adding:
"Because of this law and the many others that preceded it, attacking both families and companies, SpaceX will now move its HQ from Hawthorne, California, to Starbase, Texas."
Musk wrote in a follow-up that he made it "clear" to Newsom last year that "laws of this nature would force families and companies to leave California to protect their children."
In Monday's podcast, Musk also slammed gender-affirming care, which can range from talk or hormone therapy to surgical intervention, calling it “evil” and saying that “people that have been promoting this should go to prison.”
Peterson, a psychologist and former teacher who was previously under investigation for making sexist, transphobic, and racist comments while teaching a class, agreed and said, "It won't stop until that happens."
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