Elon Musk Says He Was Tricked Into Allowing His Son to Receive Puberty Blockers

Elon Musk gestures as he attends the Viva Technology conference at the Porte de Versailles exhibition centre in Paris, France, on June 16, 2023. Gonzalo Fuentes/Reuters

Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said on July 22 that he was “tricked” into giving consent for his son to be given puberty-suppressing hormones, which ultimately led to his son identifying as transgender.

In an interview with Dr. Jordan Peterson, Mr. Musk said that he lost his son Xavier, who now goes by the name Vivian Jenna Wilson, after he agreed to his child’s transition.

“I was essentially tricked into signing documents for one of my older boys, Xavier,” Mr. Musk said.

“This is before I had really 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 if he didn’t.”

Mr. Musk said he was not informed that puberty blockers are “actually just sterilization drugs” when he agreed to his son receiving the treatment.

“I was tricked into this,” he reiterated.

“I lost my son, essentially. They call it deadnaming for a reason. Deadnaming refers to the act of calling people who identify as transgender by the name they were given at birth and no longer use.”

Mr. Musk described the incident that occurred to his child as “incredibly evil” and said that those who have been promoting gender-transition procedures to minors “should go to prison.”

His son Xavier legally changed his name at the age of 18. The petition for the name change was filed with the Los Angeles County Superior Court in Santa Monica in April 2022.

Xavier Musk said at the time: “I no longer live with or wish to be related to my biological father in any way, shape or form.”

There was no further explanation of the rift between Mr. Musk and his son. His mother is Justine Wilson, who divorced the tech billionaire in 2008.

Just days before Mr. Musk’s interview with Mr. Peterson, on July 17, Mr. Musk said he would relocate SpaceX’s headquarters from California to Texas after California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill prohibiting districts from requiring school staff to inform parents of their children’s gender identification changes.

“This is the final straw. 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,” he wrote in a post on his social media platform X.

“I did make it clear to Governor Newsom about a year ago that laws of this nature would force families and companies to leave California to protect their children.”

Mr. Musk has previously criticized adults who encourage children to undergo gender transition procedures, saying they were feeding kids “propaganda.”

“Moreover, every child goes through an identity crisis before their personality/identity crystallizes,” he stated. “Therefore, we shouldn’t allow severe, irreversible surgery or sterilizing drugs that they may regret until at least age 18.”

A recent study found that puberty blockers may cause permanent damage to boys’ reproductive organs and irreversibly impair their fertility, undercutting the claim that their use is a harmless way to “explore gender identity.”

The Mayo Clinic study, published in March and not yet peer-reviewed, analyzed the largest clinically annotated pediatric testicular biorepository from teenage boys who suffered from gender dysphoria and were put on chronic puberty blockers.

Tom Ozimek and Reuters contributed to this report.