Such journalists cannot be trusted to deliver an “honest story,” White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt says
The administration of US President Donald Trump refuses to engage with reporters who list their gender pronouns in their email signatures, White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt and other senior officials have confirmed.
Such an approach towards pronoun-using reporters, rumored to be in place since the early days of Trump’s second term in office, was confirmed as an official policy by the White House on Wednesday, when an inquiry on the matter was made by multiple media outlets. Leavitt confirmed the White House does not trust such journalists and is less likely to respond to their emails.
“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 in a statement.
The press secretary did not respond to follow-up questions on when exactly the policy was enacted and whether it applies to all correspondence between reporters and other White House officials outside the presidential press service, WaPo noted.
The spurning of reporters who list their pronouns appears to be part of a broader government policy that extends beyond the White House press service. For instance, a Department of Government Efficiency adviser, Katie Miller, gave a similar response to a reporter with the New York Times, stating that she does not “respond to people who use pronouns in their signatures as it shows they ignore scientific realities and therefore ignore facts.”
“This applies to all reporters who have pronouns in their signature,” she said, as quoted by the outlet.
The Trump administration took sweeping action aimed at dismantling gender and diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs shortly after the president assumed office back in January. Employees of multiple government agencies reportedly received notices requesting that they remove pronouns from their email signatures.
Trump has taken various actions against DEI, banning “radical gender ideology” in the military in an executive order and stating that service should be limited only to those mentally and physically fit. Another order banned trans women from female sports, while the policy of recognizing only two sexes has been adopted federally.
The actions of the new US administration have been met with several legal challenges, with civil rights groups and LGBTQ advocates condemning the policy changes as discriminatory.
