'Beloved' DNA Testing Company 23andME's Epic Pronoun Meltdown

A House Judiciary hearing on 23andMe’s bankruptcy fallout, Rep. Brandon Gill (R-TX) pivoted from data-privacy concerns to roast former CEO Anne Wojcicki over her company’s 2021 Pride-month pronoun graphic. Gill brandished the X post listing fourteen pronouns—from “he/him” to “xe/xem” and “e/em”—and asked Wojcicki point-blank: “What does ‘e’ mean as a pronoun?” Caught flat-footed, she admitted she was “not sure”.

Undeterred, Gill drilled her again on “em,” “ze,” and “hir,” highlighting the absurdity of demanding universal adoption of terms even the company’s own CEO couldn’t define. He quipped that a genetics firm should be able to “sequence DNA, but can’t sequence a pronoun,” underscoring how corporate DEI posturing often outpaces basic comprehension. Wojcicki defensively blamed her comms team—an untenable dodge for a CEO whose public social-justice pivots helped shape the brand identity.

The grilling went viral across conservative feeds, prompting shareholders to fret that 23andMe’s slide into “woke social justice organization” territory distracted from its core mission of genetic research and triggered a stock dip amid bankruptcy talks. Social-media critics piled on—with memes mocking “pronoun labs” and hashtags like #DefineYourPronouns, lampooning how woke mandates co-opt even science-driven companies.

Far From Woke verdict: When a biotech pioneer can’t explain the alphabet soup of woke pronouns, you know the “woke mind-virus” has corrupted boardrooms—and ruined lunch-break word games for good.