Confronting the “Woke Mind Virus” of Gender Ideology
by Michael Larson
No one is immune to destructive gender ideology, not even Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, the wealthiest man in the world with a net worth of $233.9 billion. In 2022, the billionaire’s then 18-year-old son, Xavier, announced a new female gender identity and a feminine name. Xavier even petitioned a California court to make the changes official stating on the form he is taking his mother’s last name as to no longer relate to his father “in any way, shape, or form.”
In a recent interview with Dr. Jordan Peterson, a clearly distraught Musk explained how the “woke mind virus” of gender ideology figuratively killed his son.
“I lost my son, essentially. They call it deadnaming for a reason,” said Musk. “The reason it's called deadnaming is because your son is dead. My son Xavier is dead, killed by the woke mind virus.”
Musk commented that during the confusion of the COVID-19 pandemic he was “tricked” into giving consent to put Xavier on puberty blockers, which he noted are “essentially sterilization drugs.” He admitted to not having any understanding at the time about the procedures, but was told Xavier “might commit suicide” without them. Dr. Peterson noted that gender ideology has led to many “demolished kids” and that “no reliable clinician” has ever believed puberty blockers would prevent suicide. He stated any notion of “suicide” from doctors is a “lie right from the outset.”
Recent, peer-reviewed research seems to agree that the suicide narrative is in fact a lie. A 2022 study published by the Heritage Foundation found that in states with easy access to puberty blockers and hormones for children actually have increased suicide rates. Then there is data that shows up to 88 percent of girls and up to 98 percent of boys with gender confusion “will desist” with age, especially with counseling. These findings and others have international doctors from nine countries saying there is “no reliable evidence” that gender-related interventions stave off mental health issues and suicide.
Yet, this hasn’t stopped the multi-billion dollar “gender surgery industry,” including some children’s hospitals and pediatric doctors, from peddling this suicide trope, which happens to come with a hefty price tag. According to medical sources, puberty blockers can cost between $4,000-$25,000 per year, while an archived and undated price list from the Philadelphia Center for Transgender Surgery shows chest surgeries can cost up to $10,900 and bottom surgeries up to $24,990. These prices are higher today, for a team of researchers at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine in Tennessee found the median cost for chest reconstruction surgeries in 2022 was nearly $30,000.
To this agenda, Musk responded, “Incredibly evil, and I agree with you that the people that have been promoting this should go to prison.” Due to the gender industry’s destructive toll on his son, Musk vowed to “destroy the woke mind virus.”
So far, Musk is following through on that vow. He has announced plans to relocate his headquarters for SpaceX and his social media company X out of California because of a new statewide gender secrecy law requiring school employees to lie to parents about their child’s gender identity.
In other areas, the veil of gender ideology is fraying and commonsense efforts to ban harmful and often irreversible gender interventions are gaining momentum. While more than half of all U.S. states have enacted laws banning doctors from attempting to change a child’s gender, at least eight foreign governments have also halted or limited puberty blockers to protect children.
The writing is on the wall when these many governments are listening to genuine science as well as gender ideology victims who cry out for it to stop. For instance, Chloe Cole, who once suffered with gender confusion but now accepts her identity as a female, delivered powerful congressional testimony similar to Musk’s experience. She explained how doctors told her parents they could have a “dead daughter” or a “live ‘transgender’ son.” Cole noted the doctors’ lies led her and her family “down a path of ideologically motivated deceit and coercion” resulting in her having an irreversible double mastectomy by age 15. At the hearing, several legislators displayed their understanding that “gender transitions” are impossible and that attempts to change genders have a 100 percent failure rate.
Despite this obvious truth, the pervasiveness of false gender ideology in everyday life is leaving no one immune. It can be found in the necessary conversations between parents and children, in all the “pride flags” on display, in the pornographic comprehensive sexuality education in schools, and in the government redefining “sex” as it lobbies to remove age limits for genital-removing surgeries. The destructive rise of gender ideology will continue to wreak havoc on relationships, families, and lives unless rational people, billionaires, and non-billionaires alike, confront it head on and call it what it is – a complete lie.
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