WASHINGTON (AFNS) —
A recent update to the Department of the Air Force writing guide, The Tongue and Quill, now allows Airmen and Guardians to include pronouns in their signature block.
The Tongue and Quill provides formatting standards and guidelines for a number of official documents, including email, memoranda, letters and papers.
“An inclusive force is a mission-ready force, and I’m thankful to the LGBTQ Initiatives Team for helping us realize this opportunity to be a more inclusive force,” said Under Secretary of the Air Force Gina Ortiz Jones.
The LGBTQ Initiatives Team, or LIT, a part of the Department of the Air Force Barrier Analysis Working Group, advocated for this change, one of the latest initiatives the DAF undertook to address barriers to service and promote a more inclusive culture.
“The change request was driven by awareness of a restrictive policy that was being used against transgender Airmen and Guardians who were authentically representing themselves,” said Lt. Col. Bree Fram, a LIT Transgender Policy Team co-lead. “It was also important for many individuals often confused as being a different gender in their communications.”
This effort was led by the LIT, with support from the Pacific Islander/Asian American Community Team, and the Women’s Initiatives Team, other teams of the DAFBAWG.
Master Sgt. Jamie Hash, the other LIT Transgender Policy Team co-lead, also explained that the explicit permission to use pronouns, a practice that is now common in the civilian sector, gets the DAF further down the road of explicitly acknowledging the existence and dignity of non-binary military members and civilians. She added that this change eliminates confusion for people with non-Anglo/Western or gender-neutral names.
“The LIT provided an opportunity to streamline the process for this change,” Hash said, explaining that this change was a request she started from her installation’s Diversity and Inclusion committee. “It is an example of how the DAFBAWG teams are addressing barriers, collaborating, and executing solutions in ways that have not been seen before to help Airmen and Guardians thrive.”
Official signature blocks should include name, rank, service affiliation, duty title, organization name, phone numbers and social media contact information. Pronouns such as he/him, she/her, or they/them are now authorized but not required. An example is:
ANGEL ALONSO, Capt, USAF (he/him/his)
Occupational Therapy Element Leader
48th Operational Medical Readiness Squadron
RAF Lakenheath, UK
DSN: 555-1212
Pronouns can be placed immediately after the name in parentheses or on separate lines within the signature block.
“A foundational competency of the DAF is to foster inclusion,” Fram said. “The use of correct pronouns is an easy way to show care and respect for Airmen and Guardians as individuals, and can help the DAF retain highly qualified individuals. Allowing pronouns in an individual’s signature block is a quick and simple way to eliminate confusion and promote a more inclusive culture.
By Secretary of the Air Force Public Affairs
These Pronouns will soon lead to the United States of America having the pronouns of Once and Was. Once Was great, Once Was United, Once Was cool and Once Was the greatest superpower the world had ever seen which gave the most to the world and was given the least in return. We had a good run America, but like all great powers we were stretched thin in pointless extended wars on distant lands and hollowed out from the inside by corrupt politicians and liberal educators misleading our youth. Before the book burnings begin I’d recommend reading “The Naked Communist” by W. Cleon Skousen. If reading is hard you can simply google the 45 goals of communism and put a check next to each goal accomplished.
Happy New Year Comrades.
I wonder why your comment is allowed on SSD. This is blatant antisemitism.
You’ll need to explain that one.
It could either be a tongue-in-cheek reference to the conspiracy theory that Jews are behind all of this (despite the only “evidence” of Jews being self-identification, ironically enough), or the guy is genuinely serious and is assuming the person he’s responding to is talking about said conspiracy theory.
Probably because the author of “The Naked Communist” rightly pointed out that a rather high percentage of Communist leaders, thinkers, financiers, media influencers, writers, educators, and killers have hailed from the “13th Tribe”
AMEN Brother or Sister or……. F*#%&@g what ever
I agree, We are in dire straits. I am not sure the ballot box can save us anymore, I just pray it does not turn to other boxes.
And therein lies the problem … Americans do not read. Our country is being devoured by this madness and we do not even realize it!
My pronouns are SSgt/Airman.
That’s so cool….while you worry about pronouns other countries are training their youths to hate us and how to ruthlessly kill people of America. I remember when we trained to push to an objective and destroy all enemies with extreme prejudice. We never did ask them their preferred pronouns, boy were we dumb.
What kind of mental defect needs to advertise this nonsense? How narcissistic are we going to become before we either collapse or correct course? How can we expect to fight wars when each individual believes they are the most important person in the universe?
Oh, and news flash, your DNA determines your gender, so no amount of wishful thinking and fairy dust can change it.
You bar them from enlistment.
The Tongue and Quill also informs defense contractors who develop technical publications for LRUs, ops, mx, etc. I’d wager this pronouns stuff will end up buried in a BOE sooner or later with a 600 hr estimate. This will cost money. Maybe it’ll end up on jets too.
Hope the Corps can kick this pronoun can down the road for a few decades more.
I’m surprised by this since the Air Force is the only service that uses a gendered term “airmen” for all their members. Kind of ironic.
AirpersonX coming soon?
God I hope no decision makers see your comment. Very dim lightbulbs will start going off in their heads.
Can we have a pronoun for morons too? Genetics also produces them.
This must be where the C.O.L.A stipend that was cut ended up.. Good to know we can waste funds and time with this, instead of providing the assistance soldier’s, sailor’s, marines, airman and their families need.
Charlie don’t get much pronoun guidance. He’s dug in too deep or moving too fast. His idea of R&R is cold rice and a little rat meat.
I’m stealing this Davy.
There are a dizzying number of pronouns individuals can select. How in the hell can anyone remember which ones an individual chooses. Late in my career I was the top enlisted advisor for a unit with over 1,000 Soldiers. So today would I be expected to get each Soldiers pronoun of choice correct when I refer to them? This is an absolute joke. The next time we come up against a near peer competitor we are going to get our asses kicked. Not because of this pronoun issue, this is just a symptom. The cause of the problem is that our senior leaders have lost focus on what really counts. The ability to fit and win wars. That should be their only focus, not diversity, equity, and inclusion.
According to the Air Force, you get three choices, “he/him, she/her, or they/them,” that’s it. You can’t even mix them for maximum confusion.
An “inclusive force” does not promote the war fighting capability of the USAF, or any other branch of the service. All this promotes is a segregation of us vs them, and with the current political climate, a transgender complaint against you will be career ending (which is very known to the community).
People aren’t fighting for equal rights, they are fighting for special rights and privileges.
This policy is sick and destructive both to individuals as well as the military as an entity. You aren’t a “He” or She” or anything else other than rank.
I think the road to damnation began with TQM.
The push for a corporate military? Yeah, I can’t argue that at all.
The AF is tripping over itself to placate a vocal (but infinitesimally small) percentage of whiners as it forces warfighting and lethality to take a backseat to social appeasement. Again.
It’s what ‘Big Defence’ gets you. When the ratio of backend admin roles is massively disproportionate to the sharp end it builds endless layers of bureaucracy concerned with stuff only to keep itself busy.
I’m wondering how many alternative gender folk had anything to do with this, my bet is SFA and it was another ‘initiative’ by some unneeded dept told to keep relevance. I don’t know many serving trans or (insert other here) but those I do didn’t join for this bullshit.
That said, my name is gender obscure so if i get the chance I’m picking ‘they’ just to upset someone somewhere. If they wanna make these rules be ready to lump them.
Sad. It’s sad.
Another blow to the espirit de corps. But I suppose that’s the purpose, isn’t it. Self over sacrifice. Me over us. The individual over the team.
How far we continue to fall.
Jesus Wept…They say the Marines are the Navy’s Men’s Department. What is this with our precious Air Farce?
Man as a civie, I thought the military was just to kill efficiently, not all this English pronoun stuff and what not. Everyone an English major or a social worker eh?
I read this, and then lean back and gaze at my bookcase. My eyes randomly fall on “Fighter Pilot”, with a cover photo of the great ace Colonel Robin Olds, USAF, being carried triumphantly from his F-4 on the shoulders of his men…and then “American Marxism”, by Mark Levin comes into focus…and I have a hard time containing my revulsion and rage. All I can say right now is, sharpen your edge, harden yourself, keep your eyes open, your mind alert, and your powder dry. Remember who you are…who WE are. There are terrible times coming, and the enemy is inside the wire.
The enemy breached the wire under the Trojan horse of “tolerance and inclusion”, with deliberately ambiguous intentions and an excess of moral superiority. Since then, the goalposts have been constantly moved to further accommodate increasingly aberrant and dysfunctional lunacy.
It’s so thoroughly entrenched that the rot is undeniable. We are fast approaching the time to pay the piper.
We are going to lose the next one.
And because of the state of things we have allowed to happen…maybe we deserve to.
THIS.
Let’s change the name and mission of The Department of Defense to The Department of Sociology.
The AF continues to show that it’s the joke that everyone thinks it is.
I’m sofa king glad I’m retired…