Elon Musk’s transgender daughter radically influenced his shift to the right. A lot of trans people have family members like him

This week, the world’s richest person launched an unseemly public attack on his estranged transgender daughter.

In an interview released on Monday, Elon Musk – electric car entrepreneur, US government rocket contractor, and outright owner of the social media service X (formerly Twitter) – claimed that his daughter Vivian Wilson’s transition was the trigger for his recent right-wing turn.

«Essentially… my son is dead,» said Musk. «Killed by the woke mind virus. So I vowed to destroy the woke mind virus after that. And we’re making some progress.»

Wilson soon fired back on the rival social network Threads and in an interview with NBC News, saying that Musk was «lying blatantly» about her childhood and of bullying her for expressing femininity. (The Independent has contacted Musk for comment, via his companies.)

For many trans people, these events were sad but not surprising. That is because all too many have witnessed their family members’ politics becoming more extreme and more anti-trans since they came out.

Here are the stories of three trans and non-binary people who spoke to The Independent about their experiences. Their identities and certain other details have been blurred, and their answers have been edited for length and clarity.

In most cases, their family members’ political shift didn’t come from nowhere; some had a prior interest in anti-trans politics. But all our interviewees said that things had got worse since their transition began.

I started transitioning around a year and a half to two years ago, and came out to my parents eight months ago. I think multiple members of my family are undergoing anti-trans radicalization.

After I came out, my mum took time off work due to stress and claims to have had panic