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Rep. Brandon Gill, R-Texas, grilled 23andMe co-founder and former CEO Anne Wojcicki on Tuesday about a social media post regarding transgender pronouns, forcing her to admit she is not “up to speed” about what they mean.
Lawmakers are in the process of launching an investigation to assess the risk of 23andMe users’ genetic data being transferred to third party buyers amid the company’s bankruptcy. Wojcicki testified before a U.S. House committee a few months after she stepped down as CEO of the genetics analysis company in March.
While the hearing was focused on data privacy as the company potentially changes hands, Gill questioned the former CEO about a politically-charged post the company’s official X account made under her watch.
“23andMe has really, over the past few years, gone out of its way to show how woke it is. And one of the things that it’s been promoting, among many others, is a variety of different pronouns,” he said as he shared a Pride month post from 2021.
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“Science shows using correct pronouns can impact trans people’s health by significantly reducing their risk of depression and suicide. This is one of many reasons why we have been working to improve our product for trans and non-binary customers,” the post said, along with a graphic showing 14 pronouns ranging from the standard “He, him, she, her,” to the esoteric “ze, hir, xe, xem, fae, faer, e, em.”
The tweet linked to a 23andMe company blog post headlined, “Trust the Science by Supporting Trans Health Care.” The piece said “medical experts” support allowing trans people to use the bathroom of their gender identity, and defended “Gender-affirming health care” for children by citing pediatric guidelines.
Gill pressed the former CEO about the X post, noting one of the pronouns in particular, “I just wanna ask you, what does ‘e’ mean as a pronoun?”
“To be honest, I am not sure,” Wojcicki replied.
“Okay, do you know what ‘em’ means as a pronoun?” Gill asked.
“I’m also not sure,” the former CEO replied.
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“Don’t you think it’s important to know what these mean? You guys are – In this post you wrote, or somebody in your comms team wrote, that using the correct pronouns impacts trans people’s health and reduce the risk of depression and suicide,” Gill said. “That’s a pretty serious claim. It seems like if you’re gonna demand people use these pronouns you would know what they mean, right?”
“I was CEO, but that doesn’t mean I can oversee every single post,” Wojcicki said.
“Very very politically charged post that you guys put out, I would think that you’d have a view on that,” Gill said, going on to ask the former CEO the difference between the ‘xe’ and ‘ze’ pronouns.
“I’m not up to speed on that,” she replied.
Grill pressed Wojcicki again on whether she felt like not understanding these pronouns indeed marginalizes transgender people, and she replied that she supports her research team who felt that it is important for the company “to be inclusive of everybody.”
Gill went on to argue that even if the social and research team had put out the messaging, she was CEO at the time, and cannot “pawn off responsibility to somebody else.”
Referring to the company blog post, he asked whether it had been 23andMe’s policy to allow biological men to use the women’s restroom while she was still the CEO.
After noting the company had non-gendered bathrooms as well, Wojcicki answered that while she was CEO, “I think our position was just to make sure that we’re applicable to laws.”
He then grilled her about the post mentioning support for transgender procedures for youth, and Wojcicki defended it by noting that it cited specific pediatric guidelines.
“Sounds to me like you took a genetics company that you built – and congratulations for doing that – and turned it into a woke social justice organization,” Gill said, claiming that she is now running from such a position now that such ideas have fallen from popularity.
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