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The Republican president has banned an essential part of the English language from email signatures for federal employees.
The Trump administration has ordered federal employees to remove pronouns from their email signatures, a move widely seen as an attack on transgender workers and a broader attempt to erase LGBTQ+ identities from government workplaces. The directive, which applies to agencies including the State Department, Department of Defense, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and Department of Transportation, follows a series of executive orders targeting diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives.
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Federal workers were instructed to comply with new guidelines by 5:00 p.m. Friday, ABC News reports. The orders, issued through internal memos and the Office of Personnel Management, cite Trump’s “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth” executive order, whichmandates that the federal government recognize only two genders based on sex assigned at birth: male and female, denying the existence ofnonbinary and transgender people.
This crackdown extends beyond email signatures. Agencies, including the State Department, have been directed to review and remove references to gender identity in programs, contracts, and grants. An OPM memo further instructed agencies to turn off features that prompt users to include pronouns and to place employees involved in gender-focused DEI work on administrative leave. The administration has also ordered a federal facilities bathroom ban, barring transgender employees from using restrooms aligned with their gender identity.
For transgender workers, the impact is profound, according to GLAAD. Removing pronouns from email signatures erases a vital form of self-identification in professional spaces. Prohibiting the use of nicknames forces transgender employees who have not legally changed their names to use their deadnames, subjecting them to misgendering and outing them against their will.
“In my decade-plus years at CDC, I’ve never been told what I can and can’t put in my email signature,” one federal employee told ABC News.
In response to these sweeping attacks, Delaware Democratic U.S. Rep. Sarah McBride has spoken out against the administration’s targeting of transgender Americans.
“Since January 20, I’ve heard from transgender constituents and their families who are living in fear of the Trump administration’s relentless attacks on them,” McBride, the first out trans member of Congress, said in a statement. “From day one, the administration has taken actions that would force the outing of transgender people, stripping them of their privacy and safety.”
McBride also condemned Trump’s rollback of transgender military protections, the bathroom restrictions for federal workers, and policies that threaten inclusive schools and medical care.
“Each time the Trump administration attacks a small, vulnerable community, the ripple effects of hate echo across our society,” she said.
