Employees at NASA will no longer be able to display their pronouns in their email signature, nor next to their display name on Microsoft Outlook and Team. It’s the latest in a series of changes at the space agency following the inauguration of President Donald Trump.
In an agency-wide email, NASA informed its employees that features in id.nasa.gov and Teams that allow users to add pronouns in their display name in Microsoft Outlook and Teams have been disabled in response to recent executive orders, NPR reported. “For users who have previously added pronouns to their display name, those pronouns will be automatically removed from the system this week,” the email, viewed by NPR reporters, reportedly read.
Additionally, NASA adopted “a uniform signature block for emails that are sent using any nasa.gov email address,” which “should not include additional embellishment,” according to the email. “All users (civil servants, contractors, and grantees) must modify their signature block to follow the appropriate signature block.” Gizmodo reached out to NASA’s press office for comment but did not hear back by time of publication.
This is the latest in a series of steps the space agency has taken to comply with an onslaught of executive orders stemming from the new administration’s war on diversity and inclusion. Shortly after President Trump announced an executive order to shut down diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) offices in the federal government, NASA quickly put an end to its diversity programs and canceled any related contracts. “These programs divided Americans by race, wasted taxpayer dollars, and resulted in shameful discrimination,” NASA’s acting administrator Janet Petro wrote in a memo sent out to agency employees on January 22.
NASA reportedly sent out another memo the same day, ordering employees to remove certain terms from its public websites, including DEI, underrepresented groups, women in leadership, environmental justice, and accessibility. NASA also paused the work of several astrophysics and planetary science committees as it works to figure out where those groups stand.
NASA’s latest move to remove pronouns from employees’ display name and email signature goes against the agency’s earlier effort to support its employees’ right to be addressed by their name and pronouns. In 2022, online reports claimed that NASA had removed employees’ displayed pronouns from their ID badges. A statement from NASA, which has now been removed from its website, voiced the agency’s support of “every employee’s right to be addressed by their correct name and pronouns.”
“All NASA employees currently have the option and flexibility to include their gender pronouns in their customized email signature blocks. This option remains unchanged and is supported by NASA leadership so that employees can share their gender identities and show allyship to the LGBTQIA+ community,” the statement read, according to a Space.com article at the time.
The statement’s URL now returns a “page not found” error, along with other pages that have been removed following Trump’s executive orders. NASA is seeking to sweep its websites, and its employees’ digital signatures, in accordance with the administration’s new rules.
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