Nevertheless, its gender policies include assessing ‘resources for gender dysphoria and gender transition care’ for staff members abroad.
Last October, the State Department marked “international pronouns day” in a message posted to its Twitter account. The would-be holiday is an initiative by transgender-identity activists to promote the sharing of people’s preferred pronouns.
This year’s international pronouns day came and went on Wednesday without any apparent mention by the State Department. There was no tweet.
This may be because the department’s 2021 tweet was roundly mocked online. After the tweet went up on October 20, 2021, critics pointed out that State was focusing on listing people’s gender pronouns in email signatures — and that the article linked to the post discussed the use of gender-neutral pronouns, including those invented for the purpose of catering to left-wing gender-ideology proponents:
Today on International Pronouns Day, we share why many people list pronouns on their email and social media profiles. Read more here on @ShareAmerica: https://t.co/gWhoItvGvo.
— Department of State (@StateDept) October 20, 2021
“These pronouns include the gender-neutral they/them/theirs — words that traditionally refer to a plural number but that today are used by some individuals who identify as gender nonbinary or who prefer not to share gender information,” explained the article that the State Department had shared. “Other pronouns include the feminine she/her/hers and the masculine he/him/his. Some people are pioneering gender-neutral pronouns such as ze/zir/zirs.”
That the tweet was posted soon after the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan completed was also a point of criticism.
Despite not marking the pronouns day this year, the department continues its work to promote “diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility,” or DEIA. Foggy Bottom is currently undertaking a high-priority, top-down reform process to bring itself in line with the White House’s broader push to reshape the federal bureaucracy to reflect these principles. That includes government-wide efforts to build out DEI-focused offices at federal agencies.
While the State Department has backed down from promoting activist-inspired messaging that earned it widespread ridicule, policy work corresponding to that sort of worldview continues. The department’s recently released DEIA strategic plan disclosed that State is assessing “resources for gender dysphoria and gender transition care at posts for employees and their dependents.”