Trump officials won't answer reporters' queries if they include pronouns in emails

The Trump administration really, really, really hates pronouns.

Keep up with the latest in LGBTQ+ news and politics. Sign up for The Advocate's email newsletter.

“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,” The New York Times reports.

“As a matter of policy, we do not respond to reporters with pronouns in their bios,” White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt wrote to a Times reporter.

Leavitt also told the Times that any journalist who includes pronouns “clearly does not care about biological reality or truth and therefore cannot be trusted to write an honest story.”

Katie Miller, a senior adviser at the Department of Government Efficiency, said she doesn’t respond to reporters who state their pronouns because it indicates “they ignore scientific realities and therefore ignore facts.” Journalists at outlets other than the Times have received similar responses.

It’s all part of the administration’s attack on what it calls “gender ideology,” really an attack on transgender, nonbinary, and intersex people. But these officials do ignore the fact that often, reporters who include their pronouns are not trans and are stating pronouns that align with their sex assigned at birth. The inclusion of pronouns may be helpful if the journalist has a gender-neutral first name as well. And of course, trans, nonbinary, and intersex people exist, no matter what the administration says, and deserve the same respect as anyone else.

Trending stories

Here's how to watch Lady Gaga at Coachella & full livestream schedule

From Z to APT: Here's who won the 'Drag Race' S17 Lip Sync Smackdown

Robert Irwin is stripping down & rocking tiny briefs in new underwear campaign

Gerald Garth is keeping people of color happy and healthy through trying times

Elon Musk uses burner accounts on X, doesn’t fact-check: report

France becomes world’s first country to enshrine abortion rights in constitution

Lady Gaga is bringing 'Gothic dreams,' queer joy to Coachella

Broadway's best raise over $1 million for LGBTQ+ and HIV causes

French Polynesia doesn’t need Pride flags to earn its place on every LGBTQ+ bucket list

Trump's orders prompt CDC to erase HIV resources

JoJo Siwa updates pronouns on 'Celebrity Big Brother UK'

Bobby Berk reveals his favorite part about being gay: 'The sex!'

Season 4 of The Switch on resilience & radical self-love returns this spring

In 'Happy Endings with Bruno,' a 'Drag Race' stud offers a massage with a message

'Survivor' star Teeny Chirichillo comes out as trans in candid new essay

Discover the power of Wellness in your life

Out and About with Karan Soni

Broadway bound: The best hotels in NYC’s Theater District for every type of traveler

Beyond Wonderland's accepting & unifying rave culture is needed more than ever

The Charles is Pacific Grove's new LGBTQ+ hotel

How climate disasters hurt mental health in young people

All 6 rogue Mississippi cops got long prison sentences in 'Goon Squad' torture of 2 Black men

Joe Biden has tied the record for most LGBTQ+ judges confirmed in federal courts

15 lesbian coming-of-age movies that will hit you right in the feels

23 brutally funny 'Hands Off' protest signs that prove the resistance is alive & hilarious

• 0
• 1
• 2
• 3
• 4
• 5
• 6
• 7
• 8

Administration officials declined to tell the Times if not responding to journalists who include pronouns is a formal policy or when it started. The administration has told federal workers they can’t state their chosen pronouns in their email signatures.

“Evading tough questions certainly runs counter to transparent engagement with free and independent press reporting,” a Times spokesperson said. “But refusing to answer a straightforward request to explain the administration’s policies because of the formatting of an email signature is both a concerning and baffling choice, especially from the highest press office in the U.S. government.”