In a move that aligns with President Donald Trump’s executive order against promoting gender ideology, federal employees across several U.S. departments were instructed to remove personal pronouns from their email signatures by 5 p.m. on Friday.
This directive came as part of a broader push to comply with the president’s order and an updated style guide that excludes the use of pronouns.
Employees at the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the Department of Transportation were among the first to receive the directive.
The instruction, reviewed by USA TODAY, told USDA staff to “recreate their signatures” in order to align with the updated guidelines.
Similar orders were issued to employees at the State Department, the Labor Department, and the Department of Veterans Affairs, according to reports from ABC News and The New York Times.
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A memo issued by the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) on Wednesday laid out additional requirements, including the removal of regulations, forms, and communications that “inculcate or promote gender ideology.”
The memo also stated that employees whose roles involve promoting such ideologies should be placed on paid leave, and all agency policies and documents should prioritize the term “sex” rather than “gender.”
As part of this effort, the CDC has already begun updating its website by removing pages that focus on health disparities among LGBTQ youth.
Similarly, the State Department has made changes to its travel advisory page, stripping references to “LGBTQ” and replacing them with “LGB,” which refers to lesbian, gay, and bisexual individuals.
This latest move follows previous executive orders signed by Trump, including one that banned transgender individuals from serving in the military and another that prohibits federal assistance for gender transitions for individuals under the age of 19.
