THE NEW YORK TIMES – The Trump administration formally barred federal workers from listing their preferred pronouns in email signatures, calling it a symptom of a misguided “gender ideology.”
Some White House officials are taking a similar approach with the journalists who cover them.
On at least three recent occasions, senior Trump press aides have refused to engage with reporters’ questions because the journalists listed identifying pronouns in their email signatures.
“As a matter of policy, we do not respond to reporters with pronouns in their bios,” Karoline Leavitt, the White House press secretary, wrote to a New York Times reporter who had inquired about the potential closing of a famed climate research observatory.
A few weeks earlier, Katie Miller, a senior adviser at the Department of Government Efficiency, declined to answer questions from another Times reporter who asked about the legal status of the department’s records.
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“As a matter of policy, I don’t respond to people who use pronouns in their signatures as it shows they ignore scientific realities and therefore ignore facts,” Ms. Miller wrote in an email. She added in a separate message, “This applies to all reporters who have pronouns in their signature.”
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.
“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,” Ms. Leavitt, the press secretary, wrote in an email …