On X after the interview, Elon Musk said his child was born “gay and mildly autistic” and claimed that these traits “contribute to gender dysphoria.” Wilson fired back shortly after on Threads, dismissing her father’s characterization of her childhood as “entirely false.” She criticized him for peddling harmful stereotypes about trans and queer people in “an attempt to garner sympathy points.”
“He doesn’t know what I was like as a child because he just wasn’t there,” the 20-year-old said in a message. And when her father was around, Wilson said, he “relentlessly bullied” her about her “femininity and homosexuality.”
Washington Post reporters called and texted Wilson’s phone number but received no response. Musk did not respond to requests for comment emailed to The Post.
The conflict marks a rare public spat between Wilson and Musk, whose frustrations with the candidate’s transition have been at the heart of his well-documented political shift to the right. In recent years, Musk has been endorsed by prominent conservatives such as Tucker Carlson, spoken out against corporate diversity initiatives and amplified by right-wing commentators on social media.
That political shift was seemingly confirmed this month, when Musk endorsed former President Donald Trump in the 2024 election.
On X, the social network he owns, he denounced gender pronouns with statements that provoked negative reactions, even from those close to him.
“I absolutely support trans people, but all these pronouns are an aesthetic nightmare,” Musk wrote in late 2020. In response to a tweet earlier that year in which he wrote “Pronouns suck,” he was reprimanded by his then-partner Grimes, who asked him to stop and told him she couldn’t “support hate,” media reported.
In the Peterson interview, Musk characterized the gender-affirming treatments Wilson received, including puberty blockers, as “mutilations and sterilizations of children”.
Musk also told Peterson that allowing children to change their gender identity was “incredibly evil” and that those who advocate for gender-affirming care for young people “should go to jail.”
Vivian is one of six children the billionaire has with Justine Wilson, a writer. He also has three children with Grimes, a musician, and three children with Shivon Zilis, an executive at Elon Musk’s Neuralink company.
Many states have banned gender reassignment care for transgender minors. A majority of Americans oppose puberty-blocking drugs and hormone treatments for transgender children, according to a Washington Post-KFF poll, although the American Psychological Association said access to such treatments is improving the general well-being of these young people.
Puberty blockers prevent the release of sex hormones. Once the patient stops taking the blockers, his body immediately starts producing his natal hormones again.
Although Musk used the term “sterilization,” Doctors who treat transgender patients say puberty blockers alone are not responsible for infertility. Puberty blockers have been used for years on children who experience precocious puberty, and they are “reversible no matter what,” said Marci Bowers, one of the nation’s most prominent gender transition surgeons and president of the World Professional Association for Transgender Health.
But a patient’s results will vary depending on when they start taking the blockers, whether they take intersex hormones, and how long they stay on treatment.
After Peterson’s interview, Musk was criticized for “deadnaming” his daughter, referring to her by her birth name and gender. Others’ refusal to use pronouns used by transgender youth and those with broader sexual orientations It’s a common and devastating problem for them, according to the Human Rights Campaign, which says half of these young people say their families “never” refer to them with accurate pronouns.
Musk came under fire from LGBTQ+ rights advocates this year after he said the terms “cis” and “cisgender” would be treated as X-rated slurs. Last year, he defended a policy that allowed users misgender people on the platform in the name of “freedom of speech.”
LBGTQ+ youth are negatively impacted by “hostile political rhetoric that often targets them, including from high-profile figures like Elon Musk,” said Jared Todd, senior press secretary for the Human Rights Campaign.
“In a world where Elon Musk could use his public status to do good, he chooses to scapegoat trans youth,” Todd said Friday in a statement emailed to The Post. “This is both sad and unsurprising given his history.”
In recent years, Todd said, HRC has decried Musk’s policies that have made X “a place where harmful rhetoric and bullying can fester unchecked.” He cited Musk’s recent decision to move SpaceX and X headquarters out of California to protest a new state law that prohibits school districts from requiring parents to be notified of a child’s change of gender identity.
“Musk’s ignorant and inflammatory views about the trans community – even his own daughter – are out of step with those of the majority of Americans and are a permanent stain on his character and reputation,” Todd said.
Wilson and Musk have been estranged for some time, Wilson told NBC on Thursday in her first public interview. She officially cut ties with the billionaire more than two years ago.
“I no longer live with my biological father and no longer wish to have any connection with him in any way,” Wilson said in a petition filed with the California Superior Court in April 2022, when she sought to officially change her name.
Wilson’s reaction to his father has garnered support online, including from Grimes, the musician who has children with the Tesla CEO.
“I love and am forever proud of Vivian,” Grimes said in a message posted to X on Thursday.
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