US space agency National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) employees have been directed to remove all pronouns from emails and other applications in an email sent to all staff members, NPR reported.
The email was sent in response to executive orders from the Trump administration, including one titled “Defending women from gender ideology and extremism and restoring biological truth to the federal government.” This order was signed by President Trump on his first day in office and includes a directive for agencies to “end the Federal funding of gender ideology.”
The directives come after the White House’s office of personnel management distributed instructions last week to department and agency heads, ordering them to remove references to gender ideology from all official materials, including emails. They were also ordered to take down any websites or other public-facing materials that reference gender identity, and ensure that bathrooms in federal buildings were designated for biological males and females.
“In response to the Executive Orders, Nasa has disabled features in id.Nasa.gov and Teams that allows users to add pronouns in their display name in Microsoft Outlook and Teams,” the email said, as per the NPR report. “For users who have previously added pronouns to their display name, those pronouns will be automatically removed from the system this week.”
The email also announced changes to email signatures. “Nasa has adopted a uniform signature block for emails that are sent using any Nasa.gov email address. All users (civil servants, contractors, and grantees) must modify their signature block to follow the appropriate signature block… the signature block should not include additional embellishment.”
This change is part of Nasa’s effort to comply with the White House’s directives regarding content within government systems.
According to 404 Media, an independent journalist-founded media website, Nasa employees were also instructed to remove specific terms from public-facing websites, including “Indigenous people” and references to women such as “women in leadership.”
