Leaving they/them hanging.
President Donald Trump has obviously been making some big changes since taking office earlier this year. Of course whether you agree with those changes or not likely depends on whether you voted for him or not, but like it or not, he’s shaking things up and pushing full steam ahead with his aggressive agenda.
One of his first major targets when taking office was ending diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) programs in the government, issuing an executive order on day one taking aim at what the order describes as “illegal and immoral discrimination programs.” And another executive order signed on his first day back in the White House took aim at gender ideology, affirming that it’s the policy of the government that there are only two sexes: Male and female.
I mean, sounds reasonable, right? Sure, there a ton of other gender ideologies out there these days, people identifying as “trisexual” or “non-binary” and claiming that they don’t fit into either biological sex, but at the end of the day, biologically you’re either a male or female regardless of what you feel like. (And I’m sure there are people who are going to come at me about how “sex” is different than “gender,” so let me state for the record: Don’t care).
Earlier this year the Office of Personnel Management, which oversees all federal employees, issued a memo to the heads of each department and agency of the federal government ordering them to take several actions to comply with this executive order, including reviewing email systems and turning off features that prompt users for their pronouns.
Pronouns in email signatures is something that’s really only been a thing for a few years now, but I’m sure everybody’s gotten emails from somebody who had their pronouns in their signature. Yeah, thanks Scott, I figured you were a he/him but I’m glad you clarified.
And apparently the administration’s disdain for pronouns in email signatures extends beyond federal government workers, because White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt won’t even respond to emails from reporters who have pronouns in their bio.
According to a pearl-clutching report from the New York Times, several White House press officials have refused to respond to inquiries from reporters and cited their pronouns in their email signatures as the reason for declining comment.
In one response from Leavitt, she told the reporter that their use of pronouns was a sign that they couldn’t be trusted to cover the administration in a neutral manner:
“Any reporter who chooses to put their preferred pronouns in their bio clearly does not care about biological reality or truth and therefore cannot be trusted to write an honest story.”
And listen, there are legitimate, non-ideological reasons that people could include pronouns in their email signature. I get a lot of emails from people I’ve never met, and if they have a gender-neutral or a unique name, I end up having to Google them or look them up on LinkedIn to try to figure out if they’re a man or a woman. But instead of citing this pretty valid reason for including pronouns in their email signature, the New York Times admitted that it’s a political statement:
“The practice of including pronouns, such as “he/him” or “they/them,” in email signatures and social media bios has become widespread in recent years as a way of clarifying one’s gender identity and conveying inclusivity and solidarity for transgender and nonbinary individuals.”
So it’s all performative political bullshit and virtue signaling? Yeah, sounds like the White House is right to ignore them.
It is official White House policy to IGNORE reporters' emails with pronouns in the signature👏
“I don’t respond to people who use pronouns in their signatures as it shows they ignore scientific realities and therefore ignore facts.” – @PressSec Karoline Leavitt
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) April 9, 2025
