Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said his son was “tricked” into agreeing to take puberty-suppressing drugs, adding that he believes a metaphorical “virus of the awakened mind” killed his son.
Musk made the comments during an interview with Dr. Jordan Peterson on Monday, after he was asked what he thought about doctors performing gender reassignment surgeries. Musk and Peterson described the act as “evil” and performed the procedure on their children.
Musk spoke about an experience he had with his own children. Xavier, who now goes by the name Vivian Jenna Wilson, woke up to what she calls “the awakened mind virus” and has since vowed to “destroy” it.
“It happened with one of my older sons. I was tricked into signing papers for one of my older sons, Xavier. This was before I had any understanding of what was going on. COVID-19 was happening, so there was a lot of confusion, and I was told that if I didn’t sign it, Xavier might commit suicide…” Musk told Peterson.
“That’s been a lie from the beginning,” Peterson interjected.
“This is incredibly evil and I agree with you that the people who promoted this should go to jail,” Musk responded.
Musk said he wasn’t told that the puberty suppressants “were really just fertility drugs” when he agreed to have his son undergo the treatment. He called the term “gender reassignment treatment” a “horrible euphemism.”
“I essentially lost a son. There’s a reason they call it deadnaming,” Musk said.
“It’s called Deadnaming because your son is dead. My son, Xavier, was killed by the awakened mind virus.”
A preprint study from the Mayo Clinic concluded earlier this year that puberty suppressants have been shown to cause long-term infertility in boys. The study argues that the effects of puberty suppressants can be permanent and that such effects can be reversed.
After a long silence, Musk added, “I then vowed to destroy the ‘virus of the awakened mind.'”
Vivian Musk came out as transgender in June 2022. The Daily Mail reported that the then-18-year-old submitted an application to change her name from Xavier to Vivian and take her mother’s surname.
“I no longer want to have anything to do with my biological father in any capacity,” Vivian said at the time.
Musk’s vow to fight the “woke” left likely influenced his recent decision to move SpaceX’s California headquarters to Texas, after Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill that bars school districts from notifying parents if their children use different pronouns or identify as a different gender than what’s listed on school records.
“This is the final push,” Musk wrote on his social media platform, X, to explain his decision.
“Because of this law and many previous laws that attack both families and businesses, SpaceX will be relocating its headquarters from Hawthorne, California to Starbase, Texas.”
