An Icelandic family court removed a father’s parental rights after he publicly opposed gender transition medical treatments for his autistic son, a case that has now drawn international scrutiny and the attention of Elon Musk.
Alexandre Rocha, a French national who has lived in Iceland for 25 years, lost custody of his child to the boy’s mother in December.
Rocha told Fox News Digital he believes the court ruled against him because he questioned the long-term effects of puberty blockers and hormone therapies on his then-10-year-old son.
Rocha described the medical interventions in stark terms.
“It should be a crime,” he said. “You are molesting kids, castrating a boy, like in the case of my kid. This shouldn’t happen. This is an ideology that has no place for kids.”
The father argued that a child whose world revolves around video games like Minecraft and Roblox cannot fully grasp the permanent consequences of sex reassignment procedures.
Rocha acknowledged the emotional appeal of transition for children navigating difficult circumstances.
“Naturally, every kid [after a separation and autism diagnosis] will have a mental challenge,” he said. “The transition is a happy place. They do feel validated, they like the attention.”
However, his concerns were focused on the future. “Will they still be happy in four years from now, or six years, from having blockers and having more hormones?” Rocha asked.
“Is it really fixing what is underlying — the mental challenge or difficulty, whatever they’re going through?”
His son received an autism spectrum disorder diagnosis just eight months before the trial.
Rocha said the court and medical professionals “slightly passed over” the diagnosis during proceedings. He noted that children on the autism spectrum often struggle with feeling “right in their skin” or “wanting to be something else,” and pointed out that his son sometimes identifies as a cat, wearing a tail or cat ears.
When Rocha raised those concerns in court, an Icelandic endocrinologist testified under oath and “totally dismissed” them, according to Rocha.
The doctor reportedly guaranteed the hormone drugs posed “no problem” and declined to examine underlying mental health factors.
With his parental rights severed, Rocha said he no longer has visibility into his son’s medical care.
“It could very well be that he is being treated with hormones, and I don’t know anything about it,” he said.
Rocha said the child’s mother has been promoting what he described as a “stronger ideology than ever.”
He revealed he had to use the artificial intelligence program ChatGPT to understand terminology such as “deadname,” a term referring to a person’s birth name prior to a sex change.
“I can’t support this kind of speech. This, to me, is diabolical. It’s beyond love,” he said.
In February, Rocha was notified that the mother had formally changed his son’s name to a female name, meaning the child’s identification documents now list him as a girl.
Rocha believes the court’s ruling extended beyond his son’s welfare. “It is to control parents. It is to control me,” he said. “It is to silence me. It is to give all power to this ideology.”
The case reached Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and owner of the social media platform X.
Musk has spoken publicly about transgender issues, having disclosed that his son Xavier transitioned and now goes by the name Vivian Jenna Wilson.
Musk stated he was “essentially tricked” into consenting to puberty blockers before he had “any understanding of what was going on.”
After encountering Rocha’s story on the X account @libsoftiktok, Musk posted, “The woke mind virus even affects Iceland.”
Rocha said he was “very surprised and honored” by Musk’s acknowledgment.
“I think we have a common fight going on,” Rocha said. “Because at the end of the day, we’re all parents, no matter the borders or nationalities.”
Beyond the legal and political dimensions, Rocha described the personal toll of separation from his son, whom he has not seen since January.
“I miss story time at night and cooking together,” he said, recalling how he shared classic 1990s films like “Jurassic Park” with his son.
Rocha recently filed a request for daily fines against the mother for obstructing his court-ordered visitation rights.
The mother denied intentionally blocking visits, citing court documents that claim the child refuses to attend because Rocha rejects the transgender identity and declines to use the new name.
Rocha submitted a witness affidavit stating that their last visit went smoothly and the child appeared happy, recalling his son saying he “missed it, to be with grandma and my sister.”
Despite mounting pressure, Rocha urged other parents to act on their instincts and seek professional guidance.
“I’m here for my kid and for his future,” he told Fox. “That’s the only thing I care about. I am campaigning for him, for his future.”
