Grimes says Elon Musk ‘doesn’t hate trans people’ and is ‘stressed about fertility’
Grimes (R) and Elon Musk (L). (Theo Wargo/Getty Images for Huffington Post)
Grimes has said her billionaire ex, Elon Musk, hates “woke culture”, and that his issues with the trans community stem from “concerns about fertility”.
In an interview with Wired, the singer touched on her work, AI-generated music and space travel, as well as talking about Musk, with whom she has two young children.
The musician insisted that Musk does not “hate” trans people. Many have accused him of being anti-trans over his antics on X, formerly Twitter, including his attempt to ban the word “cisgender” on the platform.
“Take the trans thing,” Grimes said, referring to an incident in 2020, during which Musk tweeted “pronouns suck”.
At the time, Grimes replied, in a now-deleted tweet: “I love you but please turn of your phone or give me a [call]. I cannot support this hate … I know this is not your heart.”
She told Wired: “After that, we had a big, long conversation. I was like: ‘I want to dissect why you’re so stressed about this.’
“[What] it came down to [was that] every way that you transition can cause fertility issues,” she said – ignoring the fact that many trans people have had children after medically transitioning.
Grimes continued: “I was like: ‘OK, you don’t hate trans people, you hate woke culture. I get that it can be annoying, and you have concerns about the fertility thing.
“‘Let’s figure it out because there’s a lot of fertility tech that could be innovated that would help trans people have kids, which would be great and would solve a lot of problems’.”
She didn’t explain why Musk felt so strongly about strangers’ fertility.
Grimes added that she’s “probably not” a woke person, and that the concept is “silly and out of date”.
Dating Musk – the pair have broken up but have a “fluid” relationship – was “the best internship ever”, she went on.
“He holds his people to really high standards. Watching him, I understand how difficult it is to be a great general and do something of that magnitude. Elon has an old-world kind of discipline I really respect. And I think it rubs a lot of people [up] the wrong way. They don’t want to be in that hardcore zone.”
The “cultural fit” between X and its new owner has “been very intense”, she revealed.
Grimes, who claimed she is currently “working on a bunch of baby books”, including one called Transhumanism for Babies about “civilisation building” for kids, takes credit for several of Musk’s memes and jokes.
She explained that a joke he made, claiming that he wants a “d**k-measuring contest” with fellow billionaire Mark Zuckerberg, was her idea.
“I was like: ‘Why don’t you cut to the chase and get out a ruler?’ I didn’t think he was going to tweet it,” she said, adding that the proposed cage-fighting match between the two tech giants “is not going to cause brain damage, so actually I think this is good”.
“Dudes need some outlet for trad masculinity,” Grimes continued.
Since Musk took over X in October, queer organisations have reported anti-LGBTQ+ hate on the site has soared, with the company dropping protections for trans people against misgendering and deadnaming.
Ice-cream brand Ben & Jerry’s has since said it is ending all paid-for advertising on Twitter due to the rise in hate speech, claiming that the site has become a “threatening and even dangerous space” for marginalised people.
“Twitter must act today to end the extremist and violent content on the platform,” it said.
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