NASA directs staff to exclude pronouns from official communications
What's the story
In a new development, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has ordered its employees, contractors, and grantees to remove all pronouns from their official signatures.
The directive was sent via an unsigned email.
It comes in response to a number of executive orders including one called "Defending women from gender ideology and extremism and restoring biological truth to the federal government."
System modifications
Executive order prompts changes in NASA's communication systems
The executive order, signed by President Donald Trump on his inauguration day, calls on agencies to stop federal funding of gender ideology.
Following this order, NASA has made major changes to its communication systems.
The email read, "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."
Uniformity enforced
Uniform email signature block implemented
The space agency has also introduced a uniform signature block for all emails sent from any nasa.gov email address.
This rule applies to all users, including civil servants, contractors, and grantees.
The directive further states that "the signature block should not include additional embellishment."
These measures are part of NASA's efforts to align with the White House's intent to limit certain types of content within government systems.
Content restrictions
Employees asked to remove certain words from websites
According to 404 media, NASA employees were ordered to immediately scrub a list of words from public-facing websites.
These included terms like "indigenous people" and phrases specifically targeting women such as "women in leadership."
NASA's acting administrator previously stated that the agency was shutting down all DEI programs, citing concerns that they "divided Americans by race, misused taxpayer funds, and led to unacceptable discrimination."