‘He/she/they/them’ | Staff at government agencies ordered to remove pronouns from email signatures

Workers at US government agencies including the Department of Defense have received directives ordering them to remove pronouns from their email signatures.

According to a CNN report, employees were told to “remove gender identifying pronouns from email signature blocks by 5:00 PM” on Friday, January 31.

The moves come as part of a wider crackdown on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs, departments, and practices by President Trump in the early days of his second presidential term.

Email pronoun mandate compounds anti-DEI federal orders

An earlier directive issued by the Office of Personnel Management, the government’s HR agency, instructed all department and agency heads to halt DEI-related initiatives by 5 pm on Wednesday January 2022, including the removal of references to DEI in official materials.