Are We Headed Toward the Pronoun Apocalypse?

Analyzing a recent (and terrifying) vibe shift in the “gender wars”

Trump’s war on “gender ideology” is also, unsurprisingly, a blitzkrieg on freedom of expression and civil liberties — the spiritual core of the First Amendment. As of this writing (March 16, 2025), federal employees are being forced to remove their preferred pronouns from their email signatures (two gender-busting executive orders by Trump are the culprit). While I don’t have a “gender ideology” or strong position on preferred pronouns (sometimes I list them; sometimes I don’t), I do believe that any limitation on freedom of expression (especially at the federal level) could steamroll what’s left of our personal liberties in a post-9/11 surveillance state.

In other words, the choice to include or exclude pronouns from email signatures are a matter of personal preference — who gives a shit, live and let live — but restricting that is something we should all care about. What concerns me is that Trump’s war on gender could trickle down to the state and private sector and curtail personal liberties that are, for me, way more fundamental and core than “they/them” pronouns in email signatures or jacket buttons.

Personal note: My only gender politics are that I’ll respect a person’s morphological or gendered…