Elon Musk, the founder of Tesla and CEO of X, said in a Daily Wire interview that he lost his child, Vivian Wilson, who is transgender, to the “woke mind virus,” claiming she died when she transitioned.
Musk also says that he was “tricked” into signing documents that allowed Wilson to start puberty blockers in 2020, which Musk says he didn’t know anything about. At the time, Wilson was under 18. Musk divorced Wilson’s mother in 2008, but reports said the two share custody of their five children.
Now, some are confused why Musk didn’t research puberty blockers before authorizing his child to take them. Others think his claim that he wasn’t familiar with puberty blockers just isn’t true.
Far-right commentator Jordan Peterson conducted the Daily Wire’s interview with Musk. In it, Musk repeatedly uses Wilson’s deadname and refers to her as his son claiming she is literally dead.
“I was essentially tricked into signing documents for [Vivian]. This was before I really had any understanding of what was going on. We had COVID going on so there was a lot of confusion,” Musk said. “It wasn’t explained to me that puberty blockers are actually just sterilization drugs.”
Puberty blockers pause the physical effects of puberty and are utilized by trans patients and the doctors who treat them as a solution for gender dysphoria, or the feeling of one’s gender expression not matching the sex they were assigned at birth. They are considered safe and do not cause sterilization.
Its unclear how involved Musk was involved in his child’s medical decisions at the time and what he was signing off on. But his two reasons, claiming that things were difficult as well because of the COVID-19 pandemic and that he didn’t get how puberty blockers work, shocked people. Musk only recently assumed the mantle of anti-trans crusader, leading many to wonder if his answers to Peterson were genuine as well.
“bro literally works with rocket scientists on the daily and has the ability to hire the best lawyers in the world, but yeah sure he got tricked by his CHILD into signing legal docs,” said one poster.
People were especially surprised that if he was involved, he didn’t look into puberty blockers before signing on to Wilson taking them.
“Musk giving his kid puberty blockers and saying he was tricked seems weird to me. You’re the parent, you didn’t do an ounce of research on what drugs your signing off on to give your child?” an X user tweeted. “And then to blame someone else is just ridiculous.”
“A guy like Musk can do a little research about what puberty blockers are, with all due respect,” another X user said.
Others said that not knowing what puberty blockers are is incongruent with Musk’s science and tech-focused personal brand, especially given one of his companies’ goals is to insert computer chips into human brains.
“I feel great sympathy for Elon, but I have to ask again how anyone- especially a super genius- was tricked into thinking puberty blockers were innocuous,” an X user wrote.
“They claim that Elon musk is the smartest man on the planet but he didn’t know what tf a puberty blocker is????” another X user tweeted. “So he knows everything other than common context clues in words.”
“One of the richest men on earth seems to be easily tricked,” another person said on X.
Wilson’s mother is Musk’s first wife, Justine Wilson, with whom Musk shares five other children. In 2022, Vivian Wilson changed her last name.
“I no longer live with or wish to be related to my biological father in any way, shape or form,” Wilson said at the time.
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