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The U.S. State Department has begun tagging employees with gender identity pronouns in their emails, according to multiple media reports, with some of the men being referred to by female pronouns and vice versa.
Associated Press reporter Matt Lee asked State Department deputy spokesman Vedant Patel during a Thursday briefing if the department’s internal email system had begun adding gender pronouns to employees’ emails and inquired why this was being done. “This is not an optional thing. This is something that has been just arbitrarily imposed,” Lee said. “This is not something that anybody has a choice about. And so I’m wondering why and who made this decision.”
Patel insisted that he is not aware of any such changes to the department’s email system. Lee asked why the use of gender pronouns was mandated.
“The problem is that a lot of them, or at least some of them so far, as I’ve been able to tell, are wrong. They’re giving the wrong pronouns. So, men are being identified as women and women as men. And this has nothing to do with whatever transgender or anything like that. But it’s ridiculous.”
Lee pointed out that he doesn’t have any issue with having pronouns attached to emails. However, “it should be a choice. Not something the State Department imposes on people, especially if it’s wrong,” Lee said.
Multiple outlets have also confirmed that the state department is using pronouns in the emails of employees. One signature reviewed by The Daily Signal falsely tagged a man with the pronouns “she/her/hers.” An email seen by the National Review also had mislabeled genders.
Later on Thursday, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller issued a response to Lee’s question without directly mentioning the pronoun use issue.
“The State Department’s Bureau of Information Resource Management (IRM) is aware of the recent issues with user profiles on Microsoft Outlook and working to remedy the situation. This change was unintentional and the bureau is working to correct this immediately,” he said in a May 19 tweet.
The State Department’s push to promote pronoun use is not new. Back in May 2021, it issued sensitivity guidance related to transgender employees, asking department officials to “consider a shift in language to avoid making assumptions that can be offensive to transgender and gender nonconforming employees,” according to internal documents obtained by National Review.
Officials were asked to use “words like everyone, colleagues, and esteemed guests rather than ladies and gentlemen.”
The document also included a warning to officials who do not abide by these rules. “Persistent misuse of any employee’s name, pronoun, and/or honorific may be considered harassment,” it said.
On Oct. 20, 2021, the department posted about celebrating “International Pronouns Day,” linking to an article that listed “gender-neutral” pronouns like ze/zir/zirs.
It also talked about a website contact form from the White House that also used “gender-neutral” pronouns as well as the “nonbinary” prefix “Mx.”
Other federal departments under the Biden administration have also been promoting gender agenda in the country.
In July last year, 22 states sued the federal government after it threatened to withhold billions of dollars worth of funding for school meal programs unless states complied with the administration’s rules regarding sexual orientation and gender identity in schools. One of the rules was about using gender pronouns.
A video from the U.S. Navy promoting the use of pronouns went viral last year and attracted massive criticism. In the video, hosts introduce themselves by using their preferred pronouns.
“Using the right pronouns is a simple way to affirm someone’s identity,” one of the hosts said. “It is a signal of acceptance and respect.” The host also goes on to say that “Hey everyone” or “Hey team” is a more inclusive alternative to “Hey guys.”
Many people questioned the use of such gender ideologies in the American military. “The military’s job is to kill bad guys and break things. Not this crap,” said Carl Higbie, a retired U.S. Navy SEAL and former adviser to President Donald Trump.
“While China is building the world’s largest navy—including the launch of a supercarrier last week—Democrats focus on Gender Studies and [Critical Race Theory] training for our military,” said Rep. Billy Long (R-Mo.). “China must be petrified.”
In October, a federal judge in Texas ruled the guidelines from two departments related to gender pronouns and transgender pronouns as unlawful. The pronoun use guidelines were issued by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).
