Employees at various federal agencies were told to stop using pronouns in their email signatures by Friday afternoon. This directive came from internal memos obtained by ABC News and is linked to two executive orders signed by President Donald Trump on his first day in office, which aimed to limit diversity and equity programs in the federal government.
“By 5 p.m. ET on Friday, all pronouns and any other information not allowed in the policy must be taken out of CDC/ATSDR employee signatures,” said a message from Jason Bonander, the CDC’s Chief Information Officer, sent on Friday morning. “Staff need to update their signature blocks by 5 p.m. ET today (Friday, January 31, 2025) to meet the new policy.”
On Thursday, federal workers at the Department of Transportation got a similar instruction while dealing with the aftermath of the plane crash in D.C. near Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport.
Employees were ordered to remove pronouns from everything from government grant applications to email signatures across the department, sources told ABC News.
Employees at the Department of Energy who got a similar notice on Thursday were informed that it was to follow Trump’s executive order, which asks for the removal of DEI language in federal discussions, messages, and publications.
It wasn’t clear right away if workers in other government agencies got similar messages. Officials from the Transportation Department, Energy Department, HHS, and CDC did not reply right away to ABC News’s request for comments.
The requirement to eliminate genders from email signatures is a recent outcome of the Trump administration’s efforts to end diversity and equity initiatives in the federal government.
On his first day in office, Trump signed two executive orders to stop what his administration described as “radical and wasteful DEI programs” and to bring back “biological truth” in the federal government. Both orders were mentioned in the message to agencies on Friday.
The memos had directions on how to change email signatures.
At least one career government servant was annoyed by the order.
“I’ve been at the CDC for over ten years, and no one has ever told me what to include or not include in my email signature,” said one person, who wanted to stay anonymous due to worries about backlash.
On Wednesday, the Office of Personnel Management released a memo telling agencies to check their email systems, like Outlook, and to disable features that ask users for their pronouns.
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