Elon Musk claimed in an interview that he was "tricked" into signing documents that allowed one of his children, who he dead named, to transition from male to female.
Vivian Jenna Wilson filed legal papers in June 2022 requesting to be recognised as female and for her new name to be registered. Her mother Justine Wilson was the Tesla mogul's first wife. The pair divorced in 2008.
Vivian also said in a statement at the time: "I no longer live with or wish to be related to my biological father in any way, shape or form."
In a recent interview with the conservative Canadian psychologist Jordan Peterson, Musk referred to Vivian by her birthname, saying she is "dead" as a result of "the woke mind virus."
"I was essentially tricked into signing documents for one of my older boys, Xavier," he told Peterson, who currently contributes to the right-wing outlet The Daily Wire.
"This was before I had any understanding of what was going on. Covid was going on so there was a lot of confusion. And I was told Xavier might commit suicide…[it was] incredibly evil and I agree that people who have been promoting this should go to prison.
"I was tricked into doing this. It wasn’t explained to me that puberty blockers are actually just sterilisation drugs. And so I lost my son essentially.
"So my son Xavier is dead. Killed by the woke mind virus. So I vowed to destroy the woke mind virus after that. And we are making some progress."
When Musk said he was told that his child may take their own life if the papers weren't signed, Peterson hit back and claimed: "That was a lie right from the outset. No reliable clinician ever believed that. There was never any evidence for that. And also, if there's a higher suicide rate, the reason is because of the underlying depression and anxiety – not because of the gender dysphoria."
He continued: "Every God damn clinician knows that, too. And they're too cowardly to come out and say it."
People had a lot to say about the discussion, especially given Musk "deadnamed" his own child.
"If you can name a child X Æ A-12, then you can use someone’s correct pronouns," one wrote, while another added: "If you'd rather mourn your "dead" son than love your happy daughter, you have some serious introspection to do."
A third penned: "Refuses to call his kid by their name their chosen name but then gets upset when people refuse to use the name he chose for this app??? The full circle of life."
How to join the indy100's free WhatsApp channel
Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter
Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings.