“Finally, someone with influence is stepping up to say what we’re all thinking,” tweeted one conservative commentator. “Pride flags belong at parades, not next to the periodic table.”
On the other hand, critics of Musk’s position saw the statement as a thinly veiled attack on the LGBTQ+ community and an attempt to strip away the progress made over the last few decades. Many Twitter users, celebrities, and advocacy groups took to the platform to call out Musk for what they perceived as an “unnecessarily provocative” stance.
“You can send people to Mars, but you can’t tolerate a rainbow flag? Get with the times, Elon,” tweeted one prominent activist. Another user quipped, “I’d rather see a Pride flag in a classroom than one of Elon’s rockets stuck in a student’s science project.”