Federal employees at multiple agencies were told to remove their pronouns from their email signatures by Friday afternoon according to internal memos obtained and reported by ABC News.
The directive is in response to President Trump’s executive order, Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government. He also issued an executive order on a related matter: ending diversity, equity and inclusion in the federal government. DEI offices have begun being closed and employees in those offices were placed on administrative leave.
The ABC News report said that the Centers for Disease Control and Department of Transportation were two specific agencies among the multiple agencies that received the directive.
The Office of Personnel Management issued a memo on Wednesday, January 29 that directs federal agencies to begin taking steps to “end all agency programs that use taxpayer money to promote or reflect gender ideology.”
Among the actions agencies are to take is to “Review agency email systems such as Outlook and turn off features that prompt users for their pronouns.”
Agencies are also to cancel trainings that promote gender ideology.
OPM’s memo directs agencies to do the following by Friday, January 31 at 5 PM EST:
- Send an email to all agency employees announcing that the agency will be complying with Defending Women and this guidance.
- Review all agency programs, contracts, and grants, and terminate any that promote or inculcate gender ideology.
- Review all agency position descriptions and send a notification to all employees whose position description involves inculcating or promoting gender ideology that they are being placed on paid administrative leave effective immediately as the agency takes steps to close/end all initiatives, offices, and programs that inculcate or promote gender ideology.
- Take down all outward facing media (websites, social media accounts, etc.) that inculcate or promote gender ideology.
- Review agency email systems such as Outlook and turn off features that prompt users for their pronouns.
- Withdraw any final or pending documents, directives, orders, regulations, materials, forms, communications, statements, and plans that inculcate or promote gender ideology.
- Cancel any trainings that inculcate or promote gender ideology or have done so in the past.
- Disband or cancel any employee resource groups or special emphasis programs that inculcate or promote gender ideology or have done so in the past.
- Review all agency forms that require entry of an individual’s sex and ensure that all list male or female only, and not gender identity. Remove requests for “gender” and substitute requests for “sex.”
- Ensure that all applicable agency policies and documents, including forms, use the term “sex” and not “gender.”
- Ensure that intimate spaces designated for women, girls, or females (or for men, boys, or males) are designated by biological sex and not gender identity.
