One of tech billionaire Elon Musk’s children has just filed legal documents requesting a name change, citing gender identity and her desire to distance herself from her father as the primary reasons.

The court documents, which were first discovered by TMZ, confirm that Xavier Musk, 18, aims to be recognized as Vivian Jenna Wilson, changing her birth name, as well as adopting only her mother Justine Wilson’s family name. 

Wilson and Musk, who were married from 2000 to 2008, have had five children together. Their firstborn wasNevada Alexander who tragically died at 10 weeks due to SIDS, then they had Vivian and her twin brother Griffin, and 2006-born triplets, Kai, Saxon, and Damian Musk. 

Under the April-dated filing in L.A. Country, Vivian seems to have proceeded with her name change shortly after her birthday.

“Gender identity and the fact that I no longer live with or wish to be related to my biological father in any way, shape or form,” reads one of the statements in her filing.

Elon’s Stance on Trans Rights

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While Elon has mostly kept his opinions on trans rights and other queer issues to himself, he has made a few tweets in this cultural space before – some of which have widely been accused of being transphobic.

His most recent statement revolved around a thinkpiece written by political journalist Matt Taibbi, regarding blowback from a review of Matt Walsh’s What is a Woman. The film, distributed by Ben Shapiro’s conservative The Daily Wire, explores the titular question through interviews with a variety of Americans across the cultural spectrum. 

While the film is clearly critical of trans ideologies, Musk offers his own doubt as an opinion, and highlights a core question:

Another tweet takes a moment to make fun of left liberal identity politics:

While another takes a minor shot at pronouns:

There’s a few more examples at work here, but I personally believe that Musk’s strongest negative point here – despite his rather hand-wavy admission of trans support – lies with his political connections.

Musk has repeatedly supported the Republican Party in recent times – hardly surprising considering that he’s the world’s wealthiest man.

The party itself is guilty of pushing forward deeply harmful transphobic legislation. States like Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Indiana, Kentucky, Oklahoma, Texas, and others saw efforts to block trans people—again, particularly trans young people—from accessing needed medical care. The party has also been accused of supporting national far-right organisations, many of which are breeding grounds for crimes against transpeople and several minority groups.

“These bills are not addressing any real problem, and they’re not being requested by constituents,” says Alphonso David, president of the Human Rights Campaign. “Rather, this effort is being driven by national far-right organisations attempting to score political points by sowing fear and hate.”

Vivian will appear at her court hearing for the name change this Friday.

(Featured Image Credits: AP)