The White House’s Stance On Pronouns Isn’t Just ‘Childish’ — It’s Also Legally Fraught

Don’t expect a response from the White House’s top spokesperson if you sign off with your pronouns in an email.

Multiple outlets have reported that White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt refuses to engage with journalists who share their identifying pronouns in an email signature. The New York Times said that senior Trump press aides declined to answer some of its reporters’ questions because their email signatures included their pronouns.

“Any reporter who chooses to put their preferred pronouns in their bio clearly does not care about biological reality or truth and therefore cannot be trusted to write an honest story,” Leavitt told The Washington Post.

Following the reporting on Leavitt’s policy, billionaire and Trump adviser Elon Musk appeared to celebrate it, writing that “silly” “pronoun bs is finally going away” on X.

But identifying your pronouns in an email is far from silly.

First off: Leavitt’s language of “preferred pronouns” is not accurate because a person’s pronouns are not just preferred ― they’re the correct pronouns that must be used.

But the larger issue is that including pronouns in an email signals “I’m a safe person to talk to. I care about how you want to be treated,” said Davey Shlasko, CEO and founder of Think Again Training & Consulting. It’s a way to prevent misgendering and show that you are an ally to the transgender or nonbinary community.

So when top officials like Leavitt refuse to recognize this, it signals that “it’s unsafe to interact with the administration,” Shlasko said.

And beyond the disrespect, it’s also unprofessional. Shlasko noted that elected officials and the people who work for them are supposed to represent all of their constituents, including ones who need pronouns in a signature so that people do not misgender them.

That’s why Leavitt’s response strikes Shlasko as a “really childish and unprofessional” way to say, “I don’t like how you write emails, so I’m not going to respond to you.”

Leavitt’s latest statement is not the first time the Trump administration has targeted gender identity. Since taking office again, Donald Trump has enacted policies to roll back diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, including inclusive language in office communications.

The Trump administration has ordered federal employees to remove any reference to their pronouns from their email signatures ―or else get fired, which is what happened to one Texas state agency employee who refused to comply.

Although this behavior is being normalized by the Trump administration, refusing to recognize someone’s identifying pronouns would get you in trouble with human resources in corporate America.

“As an HR professional, I believe refusing to recognize a colleague’s pronouns can be an HR issue — especially if it creates a hostile or discriminatory environment,” said Jackie Cuevas, a human resources administrator.

In some U.S. jurisdictions, refusing to acknowledge someone’s pronouns would even qualify as gender-based harassment that could result in legal action.

In New York City, for example, insisting on calling a nonbinary person “Mr.” after they have requested to be called “Mx” is a violation of the city’s human rights law, which covers most employers and housing providers. Similarly, according to California civil rights law, an employer in the state could be liable if customers harass an employee because of their gender identity or expression, such as intentionally referring to a gender-nonconforming employee by the wrong pronouns.

Unfortunately, there are still too many workplaces where this basic form of respect does not happen. In a 2015 survey of over 27,000 trans individuals living in the United States, 77% of people said they refrained from asking their employers to use their correct pronouns in order to avoid discrimination at work.

That’s why sharing pronouns in an email signature is helpful. In recent years, this practice has become a more mainstream strategy for professionals to signal to colleagues, clients and job candidates that all gender identities and expressions will be respected.

“For potential clients, donors, volunteers, candidates and other important stakeholders in your line of work, especially those from LGBTQ+ communities, it shows that your organization is intentional about welcoming all and fostering belonging,” Cuevas said. “It’s a minor gesture that can communicate a major message: Everyone is welcome here, and we respect who you are.“

But ideally, it would not be necessary.

“This is a practice that I hope we will grow out of,” Shlasko said. “It’s still necessary now, because people cannot reasonably trust that any place that they’re seeking services or even trying to do business [with] is going to treat them like a human. And this is a way of signaling that they will indeed be treated like a human.“

Sharing your pronouns in an email signature can be helpful, but it also not the only way to signal that you respect people’s identities and are an ally to all genders.

Shlasko does not include his pronouns in his email, but is explicit about his care to respect how people use theirs. His emails end with the italicized statement, “I care about respecting your name, pronouns, access needs, and anything else about how you like to be treated. Feel free to tell me what works for you.”

“I want people to know that I care about their pronouns, even if I don’t especially care about mine,” Shlasko said about why he shares this. He also notes that directly stating your intention to be inclusive can hold you more accountable than the indirect signal of sharing pronouns in emails.

“With something like this, someone could say, ‘Hey, so I see that you said you want to respect my name, and you’re pronouncing it wrong. So can you fix that?’” he said as an example. “Like, it’s a really direct way to name the intention so that you can be held accountable to it.”

If only the Trump administration would take note of this inclusive practice.