Elon Musk shared the news that Tesla, for the seventh year in a row, had scored full points for LGBTQ equality, as per the Human Rights Campaign’s 2022 corporate equality index. 

This is a national benchmarking tool on corporate policies, practices and benefits, concerning lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer employees. 

The entrepreneur asserted that the goal at Tesla is to create sustainable energy, and the company’s only deciding factor is how much someone can contribute to the goal. He added that there is no judgment on the basis of one’s personal choices, like their sexual orientation.  

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“We are trying to accelerate sustainable energy, so what matters is how much someone can contribute to that goal. Personal choices are your own and are respected”, the 50-year-old tweeted. 

Despite Tesla’s commendable workplace achievement, Musk joked about the corporate celebration of Pride Month, in a May 31 tweet. 

Pride Month is marked from June 1 to June 30 and is centred around the protests and parades to raise awareness about the LGBTQ community and increase their acceptance in society. 

However, in recent times, corporations have begun to capitalize on this wave of social activism, by most commonly putting their logos up against a rainbow coloured background. This is a larger part of ‘rainbow capitalism’ which essentially means assimilating the LGBTQ movement within a capitalist structure, allowing companies to profit off it. This inclusion obviously leads to a degree of gentrification, and the criticism of rainbow capitalism mostly is that it leads to surface activism while the incorporation of the LGBTQ movement only happens in Western, white, upper-middle class and other affluent markets.

Dogecoin creator, Shibetoshi Nakamoto also joked about companies switching causes from the Ukraine conflict to Pride Month on June 1. 

While Musk’s jokes about pronouns run contrary to his stance on LGBTQ inclusivity, the entrepreneur’s criticism of companies and their token celebration of pride is on point. 

Several companies like H&M, J Crew, and Nike make donations to LGBTQ charities, based on the sale of their pride merchandise. While this is supposed to help the cause, it ultimately leads to ‘slacktivism’ as Vox puts it. This is basically a consumerist donation structure to allow buyers and companies to support political and social causes without much personal effort. 

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Data for Progress, a think tank, found that companies like Toyota and AT&T have donated to lawmakers whose bills and agendas include banning discussion on sexual orientation and gender identity in schools, and restricting trans youths from playing in sports teams, Fortune reported. 

“These companies don’t wait a second to profit off of and capitalize on Pride branding”, said Marcela Mulholland, Data for Progress’s political director, adding “But when it actually comes to supporting those values with their political contributions, a lot of them are falling short.” 

Companies like H&M, which champion corporate pride, have factories in China – a nation with a history of anti-LGBTQ legislation. Vox also reported that Gilead, a pharmaceutical company which sponsors the New York City Pride, makes a pill which reduces the chances of contracting HIV. However, their pricing is such that the economically disadvantaged LGBTQ community cannot access the medicine. 

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“While the HIV epidemic has not had a broad impact on the general U.S. population, it has greatly affected the economically disadvantaged in many urban areas”, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention noted. 

Thus, despite sponsoring Pride Month, the company hasn’t done much for disenfranchised members of the LGBTQ community who run intensely high risks of contracting AIDS and would greatly benefit from the pill. 

Musk, who also has a Tesla factory in China, definitely deserves a harder look at his LGBTQ stance, but the entrepreneur’s criticism of other companies with their token support holds water – no matter what.