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Elliot Page’s estranged dad liked Jordan Peterson’s hateful tweet about him

Elliot Page in The Umbrella Academy
Elliot Page in The Umbrella Academy Photo: Courtesy of Netflix

Elliot Page continues to share details and insights from his new memoir, Page Boy, including about a particularly hurtful betrayal by his estranged father.

In the highly anticipated book, which arrives in stores today, Page reportedly reveals that he has not spoken to his father, graphic designer Dennis Page, in over five years and cannot imagine doing so ever again. He writes that Dennis has expressed support for “those with massive platforms who have attacked and ridiculed me on a global scale,” according to the Los Angeles Times.

One of those voices is apparently Jordan Peterson. The Canadian anti-trans psychologist and author was suspended from Twitter in June 2022 for a post in which he deadnamed and misgendered Page, a violation of the social media platform’s policies protecting trans users from harassment and discrimination at the time. He later posted a video to his YouTube channel railing against Twitter’s decision, which resulted in the platform demonetizing some of his content, though it did not remove the videos.

After Elon Musk acquired Twitter in 2022, Peterson’s account was restored along with those of other right-wing figures, including Donald Trump and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA), who had previously been suspended from the platform.

“When Jordan Peterson was let back on Twitter after he’d made a horrific tweet about me, he posted a video, just his head filling the frame,” Page writes in Page Boy. “Staring menacingly into the camera, he said, ‘We’ll see who cancels who.’ My dad ‘liked’ it.”

While Page declined to discuss the passage or his father in a recent Los Angeles Times profile, he was more open about his relationship with his mother, Martha Philpotts. According to the paper, Philpotts, a minister’s daughter, resisted Page’s identity for years after he came out as gay in 2014. At one point, she even reportedly told Page that homosexuality didn’t exist.

But, Page said, his mother seems almost relieved since he came out as trans, seeing him more at ease with himself and expressing regret for her past intolerance. “I think it’s really inspiring that she’s changed and become such an advocate and ally,” Page said. “It took her time to break out of the ideas she grew up with.”

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