US government agency workers ordered to remove pronouns from their email signatures
Donald Trump signed a raft of executive orders on his first day in office. (Getty)
US government agency workers have been ordered to remove pronouns from their email signatures as part of Donald Trump’s crackdown on inclusivity.
Shortly after taking office on 20 January, Trump ordered governmental diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) employees to take forced paid administrative leave. The move aimed to “end the onslaught of useless and overpaid DEI activists buried into the federal workforce”.
Emails seen by CNN direct employees at agencies including the State Department, Department of Defense and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) to remove pronouns from email signatures.
The emails also confirm that the move was being carried out to align with Trump’s “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth” executive order.
The executive order, which requires government employees to use the term “sex” rather than “gender”, declares it will be the “policy of the United States to recognise two sexes, male and female… these sexes are not changeable and are grounded in fundamental and incontrovertible reality”.
A State Department employee said the directive, which was sent on Friday (31 January), instils fear about freedom of speech and expression within the agency.
The department’s head of management wrote in an email that the agency “is reviewing all agency programs, contracts, and grants that inculcate gender ideology, and we are removing outward-facing media that does the same,” adding that its offices “have already been alerted to review training, forms, and plans that involve gender ideology.”
Opposition to Trump’s directive could lead to ‘termination’
CNN reported that ODNI employees have also been warned that attempts to “subvert” presidential directives to “terminate” DEI programs would result in “possible disciplinary action, including termination.”
The Department of Health and Human Services has also been handed a directive to terminate contracts with references to pronouns and inclusivity.
Trump’s anti-trans executive order has also led US Secretary of State Marco Rubio to order the State Department to stop processing passport applications with ‘X’ markers, which are used by many trans and non-binary citizens. Meanwhile, several federal websites in the US have reportedly removed resources on LGBTQ+ rights and HIV, raising serious concerns among LGBTQ+ charities.
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