Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX and chief executive officer of Tesla Inc., will arrive at the Axel Springer Award ceremony in Berlin, Germany on Tuesday, December 1, 2020.
Liesa Johannssen-Koppitz | Bloomberg | Getty Images
In a series of tweets this week, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk mocked people listing the pronouns they would like others to use to describe in their online biographies. Now a group that has given Tesla top marks as a great place for LGBTQ people to work says it should apologize.
Companies are under greater pressure than ever before to create an inclusive environment and support a diverse workforce. The practice of displaying pronouns on social media and in executive biographies is used by people who want to show respect for or identify as trans, gender nonconforming, gender fluid, non-binary, or intersex. (They are represented by the T and Q in the acronym LGBTQ.)
For example, Apple executives Tim Cook and Greg Joswiak use pronouns in their Twitter biographies. And with Facebook’s settings, users can customize their gender information and preferred pronouns, or choose not to display them if they prefer.
Musk’s initial tweet added the words “when you put him / him in your biography” next to a photo of a soldier rubbing his face with bloody hands.
After fans and opponents criticized the tweet, he continued to defend himself tweeting, “I absolutely support trans, but all these pronouns are an aesthetic nightmare.” He then pointed out that Tesla held the number one position on the Corporate Equality Index, an annual list of the best places for LGBTQ people to work.
This prestigious list is compiled annually by the Human Rights Campaign, a charity that focuses on equal rights for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.
Now that group says Musk must apologize.
“Musk’s insensitive comments are completely at odds with what HRC’s Workplace Equality Program is creating with companies every day – providing employees with a safe, inclusive and fair work environment,” the group wrote in response to a question from CNBC.
The organization’s chairman, Alphonso David, emphasized, “Elon Musk’s tweet mocking pronouns is the exact opposite of what inclusive leadership looks like today. It’s also definitely out of step with best practices we advise companies.” He also said, “Musk must apologize.”
Tesla and Musk did not immediately return a request for comment.
Musk has been accused of being a transphobic in the recent past. In July, he tweeted that “pronouns suck,” but deleted the tweet after his partner, Canadian musician Grimes, confronted him.
Here is the full statement of the human rights campaign:
The Corporate Equality Index (CEI) is a comprehensive measure of workplace non-discrimination policies, practices and benefits that are critical to the full protection and inclusion of LGBTQ workers. Tesla scored a 100 at the CEI 2020 based on this critical foundation of inclusive non-discrimination policies and benefits.
No benchmarking tool can fully explain the daily experiences of LGBTQ workers. The CEI criteria alone are the necessary foundations for LGBTQ inclusion, but they do not represent everything necessary to ensure a fully inclusive and welcoming environment. The CEI is not a cover for bad personal behavior, and HRC condemns Musk’s tweets with mocking pronouns.
Musk’s insensitive comments are completely at odds with what HRC’s Workplace Equality Program works with companies every day to provide employees with a safe, inclusive and fair work environment.