“Love your child!”: Wayans calls out Musk's transphobia towards daughter

Wayans, the parent of a trans child, denounced Elon Musk's refusal to accept his transgender daughter's identity

By Griffin Eckstein

News Fellow

Published September 19, 2024 7:47PM (EDT)

Elon Musk, co-founder of Tesla and SpaceX and owner of X Holdings Corp., speaks at the Milken Institute's Global Conference at the Beverly Hilton Hotel,on May 6, 2024 in Beverly Hills, California.  (Apu Gomes/Getty Images)
Elon Musk, co-founder of Tesla and SpaceX and owner of X Holdings Corp., speaks at the Milken Institute's Global Conference at the Beverly Hilton Hotel,on May 6, 2024 in Beverly Hills, California. (Apu Gomes/Getty Images)

Marlon Wayans has advice for billionaire Elon Musk on raising transgender children: be a parent.

In an interview with Shannon Sharpe on his podcast “Club Shay Shay,” Wayans joked that the Tesla CEO's treatment of daughter Vivian Jenna Wilson was making him second-guess his choice in vehicle.

“I have a Tesla that I'm about to drive over a cliff because I don’t like what he be saying about his trans child, that made me mad. You don’t treat them babies like that. You don’t disown your babies,” the comic said. “Love your child!”

While Wayans acknowledges that it can be difficult to understand at first, he emphasized the importance of compassion.

"I'm not proud of the things that I went through, but I'm proud that I got there in a week," Wayans said. “I'm sad to say some parents and some family members, it'll take them a lifetime. And they'll never get to that magical place that I’m at.”

Musk went on an anti-trans rant in July about Wilson. Musk claimed she was “killed by the woke mind virus” and defended his choice to disown her. Musk’s transphobic rhetoric drew scrutiny from LGBTQ+ activists and Wilson herself.

“I’m legally recognized as a woman in the state of California and I don’t concern myself with the opinions of those who are below me,” Wilson wrote on Threads earlier this year. “Elon can’t say the same because in a ketamine-fueled haze, he’s desperate for attention and validation.”

Wayans' son Kai came out as trans last year. He preached accepting your children as they are on an appearance on "The Jennifer Hudson Show.”

“Those are my babies. I went through the five stages of grief to get to that beautiful, magical place of acceptance,” Wayans said. “My child, same child they was before. They’ve just got a beard now.”


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