Federal Agencies Ordered to Remove Pronouns from Email Signatures
Employees at multiple federal agencies, including the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Department of Transportation, and the Department of Energy, have been ordered to remove pronouns from their email signatures by Friday afternoon. The directive is cited as a requirement of two executive orders signed by President Donald Trump on his first day in office, which aimed to curb diversity and equity programs in the federal government.
The executive orders, signed on January 20, 2025, called for the removal of “DEI language” in Federal discourse, communications, and publications, as well as the end of what the administration termed “radical and wasteful DEI programs”. The memo instructs agencies to edit their email signatures and remove any prohibited language, including pronouns, by 5pm ET on Friday.
A source at the Department of Transportation confirmed that employees were instructed to remove pronouns from all federal communications, including government grant applications. Employees at the CDC were also told to remove pronouns from their signatures by Friday.
A career civil servant at the CDC expressed irritation at the new requirement, stating, “I’ve never been told what I can and can’t put in my email signature in my decade-plus years at CDC.”
A memo issued by the Office of Personnel Management also directed agencies to review their email systems and disable features that prompt users for their pronouns.
It is unclear whether employees at other federal agencies have received similar messages. Representatives for the Department of Transportation, Energy, Health and Human Services, and CDC did not respond to a request for comment.