The petition was filed in the Superior Court of California in April — just a few days after her birthday. She opted to change her surname to the maiden name of her mother, author Justine Wilson Musk, who was married to Musk for eight years and has five children with the CEO. They share joint custody of all five children.
As for why she wanted her name changed, according to the petition she cited “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.”
Musk has posted multiple messages and memes with seeming anti-LGBTQ sentiment on his Twitter account. Over the past two years, the billionaire troll has tweeted that pronouns “suck” and “are an esthetic nightmare.” In May, he tweeted a meme that mocked Pride Month, and a month earlier, posted another that poked fun at a “pregnant man” emoji. Musk also tweeted that LGBTQ identities are “personal choices.”
His inflammatory public-facing speech may differ from his private conduct, however.
He and pop artist Grimes opted to raise their first child together with “gender-neutral parenting” — effectively raising their young children without binary gender norms. “I don’t want to gender them in case that’s not how they feel in their life,” Grimes said on a YouTube stream in February 2020.
Musk defended his daughter’s right to privacy in a statement to the Daily Beast. “She does not want to be a public figure,” he said. “I think it is important to defend her right to privacy. Please don’t out someone against their will — it’s not right.”
The hearing for the 18-year-old’s name change is scheduled for Friday, TMZ reported.
Musk and his various ventures have consistently stayed in the headlines, between his Twitter buyout reaching its final stages, SpaceX workers revolting internally (and then getting fired shortly after), and Tesla factory workers suing the company for allegedly laying off workers without advance notice.
