Federal email shake-up: Gender-neutral pronouns banned
American federal agencies must remove gender-neutral pronouns from email signatures. The White House's decision concerns, among others, the Department of Transportation and CDC.
The White House ordered that gender-neutral pronouns be removed from the signatures of federal officials' emails. According to American media, this decision was conveyed to employees of the Department of Transportation and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
Previously, American offices and schools recommended avoiding gender-specific terms such as "woman" or "man" and promoting neutral pronouns like "they" or "them." However, the new regulation mandates the removal of any references that "promote or instil gender ideology."
Pronouns and any other information not permitted in the policy must be removed from CDC/ATSDR employee signatures by 5 p.m. ET on Friday, as stated in the document.
Reactions to the new guidelines
On the first day of his new term, President Donald Trump signed orders aimed at "recognising men and women as biological realities" and "protecting women from radical gender ideology."
UPI reports that the instruction also mandates replacing the word "gender" with "sex" on the CDC website and in agency communications. The staff is also asked to "review email systems and disable features that prompt users to provide pronouns."
Trump also decided to withdraw gender-neutral pronouns from the military. Observers are wondering whether the president and his administration will decide to impose a ban on transgender individuals serving in the army and, if so, on what terms they will be discharged from service. Trump announced similar intentions during his first term, although he ultimately limited himself to freezing the recruitment of transgender people into the military. The Biden administration reversed this decision.
