Secretary of State Antony Blinken warned his employees at the Department of State not to engage in “misgendering,” as violent conflicts in Europe and the Middle East continue to rage on.
Blinken sent out the guidance on language in the days following the United States’ missile strike of Iran-backed militants in Iraq and Syria in retaliation for the killing of three American soldiers, turning his attention away from the conflict to tell officials which terms they should — and shouldn’t — use when talking about gender.
The February 5th memo, first reported by National Review, warned State Department employees that it “can be problematic” and send a “harmful message” to use gendered language like “mother/father,” “son/daughter,” and “husband/wife.”
But while Blinken is distributing guidance on “misgendering” at the State Department, which is responsible for the nation’s foreign policy and foreign relations, wars are still raging in Ukraine and Gaza, with tensions still high in the South China Sea.
The memo, titled “Modeling DEIA: Gender Identity Best Practices,” intended to “increase understanding of gender identity and provide guidance on gender identity language and best practices that support an inclusive work environment.”
It also goes on to claim that sex and gender are distinct concepts, with the latter allegedly referring to the “innermost concept of self as masculine, feminine, a blend of both, or neither,” which “may or may not correspond with one’s sex assigned at birth.”
The memo even encourages State Department employees to denote their pronouns in their email signatures, adding that “Commonly used pronouns could include she/her, he/him, they/them, and ze/zir.” It also stated that an individual may use more than one set of pronouns and that “this is a personal decision that should be respected.”
While Blinken’s memo told employees to use and flaunt their gender pronouns, his explained memo explained that one should not “pressure someone to state their pronouns,” and remember that gender identity “may be fluid, so remain attuned to and supportive of shifts in pronouns.”
Blinken also warned against using certain phrases that refer to people’s sex but that are commonly used like “manpower,” “you guys,” and even “ladies and gentlemen.” Alternative phrases, such as “labor force,” “folks,” “you all,” and “everyone,” were recommended instead.
The phrase “brave men and women on the front lines,” was said to be exclusionary as well, with State Department officials instructed to “use more specific language such as ‘brave first responders,’ ‘brave soldiers,’ or ‘brave DS agents.’”
Blinken’s memo comes as the Biden administration has leveraged the federal bureaucracy, from the National Security Agency (NSA) to the National Science Foundation (NSF) to push far-left dogmas.
The NSA created a 34-page “DEI Glossary” that pushed Critical Race Theory and transgender ideology, with terms like “white fragility,” “queer theory,” “settler colonialism,” and the pronouns “ze/zir,”an exclusive report from The Daily Wire found. Meanwhile, the NSF will allocate nearly $1 million taxpayer dollars to an effort to make college biology courses more “inclusive” by denying that there are only two genders.
But while several federal agencies have aggressively pushed highly ideological agendas under President Biden, former president Trump and members of his administration have discussed plans to gut the administrative state if he beats Biden in November.