Grimes told Elon Musk to turn off his phone and that she 'cannot support hate' in a now-deleted tweet, after he tweeted that 'pronouns suck'

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Grimes told Elon Musk to turn off his phone and that she 'cannot support hate' in a now-deleted tweet, after he tweeted that 'pronouns suck'
Elon Musk and Grimes at the 2018 Met Ball in New York City.Neilson Barnard/Getty
  • Grimes told her partner, Tesla CEO Elon Musk, that "I cannot support hate. Please stop this. I know this isn't your heart" after he tweeted that "pronouns suck."
  • Grimes told him to get off his phone and call her: "I love you but please turn off ur phone or give me a dall [sic.]."
  • The cultural conversation around people's pronouns, and people wanting to be referred to with pronouns like "he," "she," or "they," has increased, but their tweets did not make it explicit that this was what the exchange was about.
  • Grimes' tweet has since been deleted, but Musk's is still live.
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Musician Grimes told her partner, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, to turn off his phone and that she "cannot support hate'' in a now-deleted tweet, after he tweeted that "pronouns suck."

Musk tweeted on Friday night "pronouns suck." The tweet is still live, and came hours after he tweeted "Twitter sucks."

Grimes replied minutes later, asking him to stop and to call her: "I love you but please turn off ur phone or give me a dall [sic.]."

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"I cannot support hate. Please stop this. I know this isn't your heart."

Her tweet was since deleted.

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Grimes told Elon Musk to turn off his phone and that she 'cannot support hate' in a now-deleted tweet, after he tweeted that 'pronouns suck'
The now-deleted tweet in which Grimes replied to Musk.Twitter/Elon Musk/Grimes

Musk also added a rose emoji to his Twitter name just before he sent the tweet.

Grimes, whose real name is Claire Boucher, did not elaborate on her criticisms of Musk's tweet.

But pronouns, which are words like "she," "they, or "it," has been increasingly discussed in recent years as LGBT activists and workplaces put more emphasis on asking people's preferred pronouns and using them.

People who are non-binary, for example, may ask people to refer to them as "they," or people who have realized that their gender identity does not match how they were raised may as people to change the pronouns they use to refer to them.

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Amnesty International says that a preferred gender pronoun is "a consciously chosen pronoun that a person chooses to use for themself to reference their chosen gender."

It "allows a person to accurately represent their identity in a way that is safe and comfortable for them, and it lets others know what pronouns to use when talking about or to that person."

The Human Rights Campaign says: "Nothing may be more personal than the way in which people refer to us through our name and pronouns. Using a person's chosen name and desired pronouns is a form of mutual respect and basic courtesy."

It is unclear if people's own pronouns were what Musk was referring to in his tweets, but many Twitter users interpreted it that way.

Grimes was asked in February that if her and Musk's baby was going to be a boy or a girl, and replied that "They may decide their fate and destiny."

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