As per Donald Trump‘s orders, all federal workers were asked to remove any gender identity from their email signatures. These employees were given a deadline of 5 p.m., January 31, 2025, within which they had to remove any pronouns that they might have added to their email signatures.
The instruction that was sent to State Department employees said, “All employees are required to remove any gender identifying pronouns from email signature blocks.” Workers at the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Labor Department also got similar orders.
Moreover, new orders have also been issued about the usage of the word “gender” on various forms, saying, “The use of GENDER is not allowed on any form. We can only use SEX, and there should be only 2 options — MALE and FEMALE.”
In the wake of such orders, all-gender bathrooms at the the Environmental Protection Agency were also shut down, as an ex lawyer of the agency, Nicole Cantello, informed.
The order had come from Tibor P Nagy, who is the acting under-secretary for management. His email said, “The Department of State is reviewing all agency programs, contracts and grants that promote or incubate gender ideology. All employees are required to remove any gender identifying pronouns from email signature blocks by 5pm today.”
View this post on Instagram
Besides these orders, there were also instructions to “take down all outward facing media (websites, social media accounts, etc.) that inculcate or promote gender ideology,” as well as “withdraw any final or pending documents, directives, orders, regulations, materials, forms, communications, statements, and plans that inculcate or promote gender ideology.” Moreover, it was also ordered that federal bathrooms should only be for the two biological genders, male and female.
As reported by Guardian, “In the hours after the order, the CDC took down websites that contained critical health information including a fact sheet about HIV and trans people; lessons on how to create a supportive environment in schools for trans and non-binary students; and information about National Transgender HIV Testing Day as well as contraception.”
These orders come as part of Donald Trump’s initiative to end the federal government’s inclusion, equity, and diversity attempts. Officials who are to follow these orders have been given time till February 7, 2025 when they will have to explain how they have planned to put these ordered changes in motion.
After getting elected for the second time as the President of America, Donald Trump had gone ahead and signed executive orders that aimed to end “radical and wasteful DEI programs” and restore “biological truth to the federal government.”
View this post on Instagram
While employees and agencies have been obliging with Trump’s orders, one civil servant, who wanted to remain anonymous for obvious reasons, showed their irritation at such orders, saying, “In my decade-plus years at CDC, I’ve never been told what I can and can’t put in my email signature.”
It now remains to be seen how these radical and aggressive policies by Trump affect the American LGBTQ population and what else the government has in store for them.
