Air Force bucks Trump admin order regarding preferred pronouns in email signatures
The U.S. Air Force announced that it is again allowing the use of preferred pronouns in email signatures. This applies to both the Air Force and Space Force. An Air Force official pointed to an existing law related to the use of pronouns in emails. This is from the National Defense Authorization Act signed in 2023 prohibiting the Secretary of Defense from requiring or prohibiting preferred pronoun use in signatures.
From military.com:
A provision in the National Defense Authorization Act signed into law by former President Joe Biden in 2023 explicitly states the defense secretary “may not require or prohibit a member of the armed forces or a civilian employee of the Department of Defense to identify the gender or personal pronouns of such member or employee in any official correspondence of the Department.”
The walkback of pronoun usage was welcomed by military LGBTQ+ advocates like Sue Fulton, an Army veteran and West Point graduate.
“I’m pleased that some part of Trump’s administration is still following the law,” Fulton told Military.com in a phone interview Friday.
The Department of the Air Force’s decision to ban pronouns in email signatures came from a Feb. 4 memo issued not long after Trump’s executive order. That directive, signed by Acting Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Manpower and Reserve Affairs Gwendolyn DeFilippi, named removing pronouns as the top action on a list of changes that needed to happen “immediately.”
Luke Schleusener, the CEO of Out in National Security — a nonprofit organization that supports LGBTQ+ national security professionals — told Military.com in a statement that backtracking on the policy falls in line with other hasty Trump administration decisions describing it as “sloppy, lazy and overloaded with animus.”
“At a time when the American people face growing global threats, these attacks on LGBTQIA+ service members, DoD civilians, and veterans make all of us less safe,” Schleusener said.
In late 2021, the Department of the Air Force announced it had allowed airmen and Space Force Guardians to include their pronouns in their correspondence. It was one of several major policy achievements of the service’s LGBTQ Initiatives Team, a barrier analysis working group.
Additional Reading:
Novelly, T. (2025, April 4). Air Force backtracks on banning personal pronouns from email signatures. Military.com. Link.
Category: Military issues
