Confronting the “Woke Mind Virus” of Gender Ideology

In a recent interview with Dr. Jordan Peterson, a clearly saddened and 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.”

According to recent, peer-reviewed research, the narrative that a gender-confused child “will commit suicide” without gender-related drugs and surgeries, as Dr. Peterson suggests, 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. Additional data 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 led an international group of doctors from nine countries to issue a letter stating 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 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. However, 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.

In response to Dr. Peterson, Musk said, “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. When California Governor Gavin Newsom signed a gender secrecy bill into law that would require school employees to lie to parents about their child’s gender identity, Musk announced plans to relocate his headquarters for SpaceX and his social media company X to Texas where he already has his Tesla headquarters. He is also linked to a super political action committee to help fund President Donald Trump’s presidential candidacy. While the 2024 Republican platform dodges the gender ideology debate, Trump has publicly stated he would put a stop to gender procedures for children if reelected.

The commonsense effort of ending harmful and often irreversible puberty blockers, hormones and mutilating surgeries is gaining momentum. At least eight foreign governments have halted or limited the administration of puberty blockers and hormones on children. More than half of all U.S. states have enacted laws banning doctors from attempting to change a child’s gender. Since June 2024, four different federal courts have independently struck down several efforts from the current administration to have taxpayers fund gender procedures and force gender-confused males into female sports and private spaces.

In August 2023, the House Judiciary Committee held a hearing on the dangers associated with the attempt to change genders to inform future legislation on the matter. At the hearing, Chloe Cole, who once suffered with gender confusion but has now accepted her identity as a female, delivered powerful 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. Specifically, Rep. Harriet Hageman emphasized 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.

Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said, “Truth and reality cannot be compromised. We must tell the truth in love no matter the cost because unfettered gender ideology, like a virus, will only continue to claim more victims, especially children. We are all made in the Image of God, and God is the true author of our identities.”