Secretary of State Blinken Issues Warning to Staff regarding ‘Misgendering’

Secretary of State Antony Blinken has reportedly issued a cable to staff providing guidance on how to avoid “misgendering” people, part of which includes avoiding the use of common gendered terms like “mother” or “father,” among others.

In a cable sent on Feb. 5, Blinken noted that relying on a person’s name or appearance to make assumptions about their gender identity “can be problematic” and it sends a “harmful, exclusionary message.”

He added that State Department employees should avoid using gendered words like “mother/father,” or “son/daughter,” or “husband/wife.”

The State Department previously offered counseling to any employee “who feels hurt or upset” by an email malfunction last May that accidentally assigned the wrong pronouns to staffers.

“I want to stress that the intent behind making this feature available is to make our systems more inclusive and provide employees with options — not to make decisions for them,” Kelly E. Fletcher, the State Department’s chief information officer, said at the time in an email. “I recognize that this error had the opposite effect, and again, I am very sorry.”