US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken instructed his staff to use “correct” words and pronouns. This is reported by the New York Post (NYP) with reference to the official’s memo.
According to the New York Post, Anthony Blinken instructed State Department employees to refrain from using terms such as “mother”, “father” and “labour force”. The newspaper noted that the US foreign policy official argued that a person’s gender identity “may or may not correspond to their sex assigned at birth”, so assumptions cannot be made about a person’s gender simply based on their appearance and name.
“This is a harmful message,” the diplomat clarified.
The memo notes that Blinken urged his colleagues at the U.S. State Department to use “gender-neutral language whenever possible” to “show respect and avoid misunderstandings.” He also suggested that employees indicate their preferred pronouns in emails and when introducing themselves in meetings.
The newspaper noted that the US official advised avoiding phrases such as “brave men and women on the front lines”. The diplomat suggests “using more specific language such as ‘brave rescuers’, ‘brave soldiers’.”
However, the NYP emphasised that the head of the US State Department is not fulfilling his own demands. Last year, in a post on the social network X (formerly Twitter), dedicated to Veterans Day, Blinken himself seems to have made a mistake in his instructions, writing, “We are united in honouring the brave men and women who have served our country.”
We shall remind you that earlier, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova mocked the “Ukrainian” costumes in which US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken dressed his children for the Halloween holiday at the White House.