The Scoop
A State Department liaison office is instructing employees to restrict the use of identity- and gender-related terms, including common abbreviations like LGBT.
In a new style guide seen by Semafor, the State Department’s Executive Secretariat directs employees to avoid using “they/them” as a singular pronoun, bars the use of “gender” to refer to people, and discourages the use of words like “bias,” “equity,” “ally,” “discrimination,” “diversity,” and “marginalized,” except in specific contexts.
The guide also flags the phrase “Global South” for creating “unhelpful narratives” about development, and says staff should use “gay and lesbian” instead of “LGBTQI+,” “LGB,” or other acronyms.
The State Department did not respond to a request for comment.
While many parts of the State Department have their own, more specific style guides, the Executive Secretariat’s sets the overarching tone for the department’s cables, memos, and other official documents.
The new language policies stands in sharp contrast to the Biden administration’s State Department: One memo signed by former Secretary of State Antony Blinken reportedly encouraged officials to use “gender-neutral language whenever possible” including “they/them” and “ze/zir.”
As part of the Trump administration’s crackdown on language, multiple government agencies have ordered the removal of gender pronouns from email signatures, and the White House has said it won’t respond to journalists with pronouns in their bios.