Elon Musk, CEO of Twitter and X, has leveled several attacks against the transgender community, saying the  “woke mind virus” has “killed” his transgender daughter.

Julia Nikhinson/Associated Press

In the days after Tesla CEO Elon Musk raged against the “woke mind virus” that “killed” his transgender daughter, queer and trans folk said that as much as they’d prefer to ignore his words, his rhetoric is too popular and too dangerous to discount.

In a two-hour interview with conservative commentator Jordan Peterson published on social media this week, Musk leveled several attacks against the transgender community, though much of his comments were focused on his own child, who he said transitioned during the pandemic. His daughter, who is 20, has since changed her name and dropped her father’s last name.

Musk described gender-affirming surgeries, including procedures he said his child received, as “child mutilation and sterilization.” He said he was “tricked” into signing documents to approve certain procedures by being told his child might attempt suicide. In the interview, Musk repeatedly used the incorrect name and pronouns for his daughter.

“In general he’s pretty easy to ignore. I mean, people make transphobic statements every day,” Gatsby Lee, a transgender photographer, said about Musk’s most recent remarks. “But there’s greater impact when it comes from people with a large social presence. And this is coming from a parent not acknowledging or respecting their child’s identity. That’s going to bring up sore feelings for a lot of people.”

Musk has thrown his support behind Donald Trump in the upcoming presidential election, and Republican leaders have been leaning into homophobic and transphobic rhetoric across the country as a unifying campaign topic. Anti-LGBTQ language frequently came up in speeches at the Republican National Convention last week, including repeated mentions of “two genders” and removing “sexualization” from schools.

The Peterson interview came just days after Musk announced he would move X, the company formerly known as Twitter that he purchased for $44 billion in 2022, out of San Francisco to Austin, Texas, in response to a new California law designed to protect the privacy of transgender youth.

The law, signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom on July 15, forbids school districts from implementing policies that would force teachers to out students who present as transgender at school to their parents. The legislation was brought up in response to at least a dozen school districts introducing such policies over the past year; none is currently being enforced.

On X, Musk said the new law was “the final straw” in his complicated relationship with California and its progressive politics.

“My first thought was good riddance,” said Ebony Harper, a transgender woman and executive director of California TRANScends, which advocates for transgender health equity.

“I’m not really invested in what he says. I already know he’s a trans hater,” Harper said. “But he does hurt people. And he’s very influential within his own sphere.”

Like Lee, Harper said Musk’s most recent words stung a bit more because he was talking about his own child. Musk has in the past aligned himself with anti-trans organizations on X and in other public spaces, and he’s made comments perceived as anti-trans.

His anti-trans stance seemed to start around 2020, when he took issue with pronouns on X. He once said the word “cisgender” would be considered a slur on his platform, and he’s spread misinformation about gender-affirming care. Last year, Musk allowed a fringe conservative group a platform on X to promote a troubling documentary about transgender people that included misleading and discriminatory messages.

Harper said she can ignore most of those comments. “But if you were concerned about your child then why would you bring more violence on your child?” Harper said. “You’re one of the most powerful men in the world, so you’re weaponizing whole communities against your daughter and people like your daughter.”

Conservative groups said they appreciate Musk’s alliance on transgender issues. “It’s very clear that this is personal to him, and it’s meaningful to us because he has a big voice,” said Jonathan Zachreson, who led an unsuccessful effort to put a statewide parental notification policy on the California ballot this November.

Jorge Reyes Salinas, a spokesperson for Equality California, said many queer and transgender folks have already left X because of Musk’s comments. “And Elon is not someone that the public trusts,” he added, because of misinformation he’s spread or allowed to be published unchecked.

“But he has power within the system. I’m sure his words ignite donors,” Salinas said. His words, too, even if they’re repeated within the X echo chamber, “can create a normality for these insults” that reverberates beyond social media.

Still, social media is incredibly important for many people in the LGBTQ community, who may struggle to find safe spaces to communicate and build relationships. And having people like Musk running those platforms can be frustrating and concerning, many transgender folks said.

Niko Storment, an organizer of the annual Trans March in San Francisco, said all of his social media accounts were taken down recently for reasons that were never fully explained to him. At one point, he was told there had been concerns about human trafficking, which he said was absurd. He’s since gotten back online, but the situation was disturbing.

“Elon, when he took over Twitter and made it X, his whole claim was he was going to end fake news. And he had a big talk about making a platform for the people,” Storment said. “And now he’s coming out and saying he’s going to end the ‘woke mind virus,’ which is synonymous with being a transgender person.

“It’s just like, add it to the list of billionaires who hate trans people. It’s hurtful, but I don’t think it’s deeply hurtful,” Storment said. “The thing that makes it hurtful for me is to think about his daughter and the things that he said about her being dead. A lot of parents in our community feel that way and it’s really, really sad. It sounds like she’s doing fine, but you know, it sucks.”