Air Force Pulls Back Ban On Personal Pronouns In Emails

The U.S. Air Force is reversing its ban on including preferred pronouns in email signatures and in other professional communications.

In a news release published April 3, the Air Force said it has “rescinded” an earlier “directive to cease the use of ‘preferred pronouns’ (he/him, she/her, or they/them) to identify one’s gender identity in professional communications.”

Airmen and civilian employees may now include their preferred pronouns in email signature blocks, memoranda, letters, papers, social media, official websites and any Department of the Air Force official correspondence, the news release said.

The original ban was announced on Feb. 4, in guidance on President Trump’s executive order, "Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government.”

Military.com reported that the ban reversal came after the Air Force learned that a provision of the National Defense Authorization Act, signed into law in 2023, said the defense secretary “may not require or prohibit a member of the armed forces or a civilian employee of the Department of Defense to identify the gender or personal pronouns of such member or employee in any official correspondence of the Department."