US government agencies order employees to delete gender pronouns from email signatures

On Friday, many US federal organizations instructed employees to remove gender-identifying pronouns from email signature blocks by 5:00 PM.

"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," according to one such message sent Friday morning to CDC staff.

Directives were sent to personnel at many departments, including the State Department, the Department of Defense, and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI). The emails said the move was to align with President Donald Trump’s “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth” executive order, which says it is US government policy “to recognize two sexes, male and female.” The executive order makes no particular mention of pronouns, which generally include "she" and "he" to refer to women and males, respectively, and "they" as a gender-neutral descriptor.

The demand to remove pronouns from email signatures is the latest example of the Trump administration's efforts to undermine federal diversity and inclusion initiatives.

On his first day in office, Trump issued two executive orders calling for the halt of "radical and wasteful DEI programs" and restoring "biological truth to the federal government." Both instructions were included in the Friday memo to agencies.

According to an email from the State Department's acting head of management, the department "is reviewing all agency programs, contracts, and grants that inculcate gender ideology, and we are removing outward-facing media that does the same."

The email added that offices in the State Department “have already been alerted to review trainings, forms, and plans that involve gender ideology.”

The ODNI workforce also received a memo earlier this week informing them of allegations that some intelligence officers were attempting to "subvert" presidential directives to "terminate" DEI programs across the government, and warning that all such reports would be referred to the inspector general for an immediate investigation.