Comedic actor Marlon Wayans admonished Tesla CEO Elon Musk for his mistreatment of his estranged trans daughter Vivian Jenna Wilson during an interview on the Club Shay Shay podcast.
Wayans, who has a trans son named Kai, declared:
“I have a Tesla that I’m about to drive over a cliff."
Musk has been criticized for repeated transphobic comments, rejecting his trans child and deadnaming her when the subject of Wilson was brought up in interviews.
In contrast, Wayans has a positive relationship with his oldest son, whom he shares with his ex-girlfriend Angela Zackery.
Wayans added in the interview:
"I don’t like what Elon Musk be saying about his trans child. It makes me mad."
"You don’t treat those babies like that. You don’t disown your baby."
He added:
"Love your child! ... I’m sad to say some parents, some family members, and some people it’ll take them a lifetime."
"They’ll never get to that magical place that I’m at which is just acceptance. Still my child. That’s my baby.”
You can watch the full interview here.
TikTokers who watched the clip were moved by Wayans's love for Kai, and they commented on the study of parental contrasts between him and Musk.
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In July, Musk said that his trans daughter was "dead to him" in an interview on The Jordan B. Peterson Podcast.
During the discussion, the SpaceX founder claimed he was "tricked" into signing off on gender-affirming care for Wilson, who legally dropped the famous surname and took her mother and Musk's ex-wife, Justine Wilson's, last name.
Musk also blamed the death of his trans child on the "woke mind virus."
In addition to the legal name change, Vivian Jenna Wilson also declared her gender identity as female in papers filed with the Los Angeles County court in June 2022.
Wilson, who was 18 at the time, cited the reason for filing the legal paperwork was due to “the fact that I no longer live with or wish to be related to my biological father in any way, shape or form.”
She was prompted to speak out in an NBC phone interview after Musk wrote posts saying Wilson was "not a girl" and was figuratively "dead."
"I think he was under the assumption that I wasn’t going to say anything and I would just let this go unchallenged which I’m not going to do, because if you’re going to lie about me, like, blatantly to an audience of millions, I’m not just gonna let that slide," she said.
In response to Musk's comments about losing his child due to gender-affirming care, Wilson wrote in a string of posts:
“[Musk] doesn’t know what I was like as a child because he quite simply wasn’t there. And in the little time that he was I was relentlessly harassed for my femininity and queerness.”
On the other hand, Wayans' parenting MO is vastly different in that he constantly wants to show up for Kai and always strives to be better as a dad.
In November 2023, Wayans talked about embracing his son's transition during an episode of The Breakfast Club, saying that as a parent, he just wanted his "kids to be free."
“I want them to be free in spirit, free in thought, free to be themselves," he said, adding:
"The more you know yourself, the more you can govern yourself, the more you live your truth, the happier your existence. So, if they can’t get that in the household with their father and their mother, how the f- -k do I send them out into the world with that kind of confidence?”
Wayans also touched on how other families don't necessarily share the same acceptance of LGBTQ+ family members.
He continued, saying during the Club Shay Shay interview:
“l’m sad to say some parents, some family members, and some people it’ll take them a lifetime."
“They’ll never get to that magical place that I’m at which is just acceptance. Still my child. That’s my baby.”
Wayans reflected on his son's transition, saying the hardest part was "being the last to know."
“But as hard as it was, I think that it’s not important," he said, adding:
"It’s important what you went through; the five steps of grief, but I think it’s important that you get to acceptance."
"And I’m proud to say it took me a week–but it felt like forever.”
Wayans and Zackery's second child, Kai's brother, is named Shawn, 22. Wayans also has a baby daughter named Axl, whose mother is his ex-girlfriend Brittany Moreland.
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