US air force reverses ban on pronouns in email signatures and websites

The air force issued a directive earlier this year banning the use of pronouns in email signatures, memoranda, letters, social media and official websites. Photograph: ermingut/Getty Images

The US air force has reversed its ban on the use of preferred pronouns in email signatures and other professional communications.

In a memo dated last Wednesday, the Department of the Air Force announced that it had “rescinded” the directive it issued earlier this year prohibiting “the use of ‘preferred pronouns’ to identify one’s gender identity in professional communications”, including email signatures, memoranda, letters, papers, social media and official websites.