USA (bbabo.net), - Anthony Blinken urged State Department employees to use only gender-neutral language in communication, writes The New York Post. According to the Secretary of State, the purpose of this innovation is to show “respect” and “benevolence” to those whose gender identity differs from the biological sex assigned at birth.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in a recent memo circulated within the department, ordered the use of gender-specific terms such as “mother” and “father” to be refrained from being used.
In the memo, an official in President Joe Biden's administration argued that gender is a social construct and that a person's gender identity "may or may not correspond with their sex assigned at birth."
The text of the memo was obtained by National Review and is titled “Modeling DEIA: Best Practices in Gender Identity.”
Blinken also encouraged employees to indicate their preferred pronouns in emails and when introducing themselves in meetings, the newspaper reported.
Making inferences about a person's gender identity based solely on their appearance or name "can be problematic."
Such an approach can also convey a “harmful, exclusionary (as opposed to “inclusive” or inclusive, that is, one that avoids the use of words and expressions that are sexist, racist or otherwise biased or offensive to a particular group of people) message.”
The boss asks employees not to “pressure a person to be clear about their pronouns.”
“Commonly used pronouns are she/he, he/she, they/them and ze/zir (constructed pronouns that have no equivalent in Russian),” the secretary of state explains, noting that in some cases people use different pronouns or All pronouns are accepted.
“This is a personal decision and should be respected,” Blinken wrote.
According to the head of the State Department, common terms such as "labor", "you guys", "ladies and gentlemen", "mother/father", "son/daughter" and "husband/wife" should be avoided and replaced words such as “labor force”, “everyone”, “those present”, “you all”, “parent”, “child”, “spouse” or “partner”.
“When speaking, avoid phrases such as ‘the brave men and women on the front lines,’” the memo says.
Instead, it is suggested to "use more generic language—for example, expressions such as 'brave first responders,' 'brave soldiers,' or 'brave agents.'"
Last year, in a Veterans Day social media post, Blinken himself appeared to break his own guidelines. He then wrote: “We are united in honoring the brave men and women who have served our country.”
When employees accidentally use the wrong pronoun to refer to someone, the boss asks them to handle the misstep with “understanding and grace”—while remembering that gender identity “can be fluid.”
Therefore, “you need to be attentive and supportive to changes in pronouns.”
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