AP reporter spars with State Department official over pronoun email confusion: 'It's wrong'

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AP reporter spars with Biden State Department official on why they've added 'mandatory' pronouns onto emails

AP’s State Department reporter Matt Lee grilled deputy spokesman Vedant Patel on the change following Thursday's briefing.

State Department deputy spokesman Vedant Patel was pressed by a reporter in a contentious exchange Thursday over the department's new policy that reportedly mandates the use of pronouns in all State Department emails.

At the conclusion of Patel's Thursday briefing, Associated Press reporter Matt Lee, who covers the State Department, asked Patel to address the new internal pronoun policy which reportedly mandates all employees to include their pronouns in the ‘from’ field on all agency emails. Lee said he discovered the "mandatory" policy hours earlier during an email exchange with Patel's colleagues.

"Have you gotten any emails from any of your colleagues before you came out here… since about noon or so? Lee asked.

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State Department deputy spokesman Vedant Patel speaks during the daily press briefing at the State Department in Washington, D.C., on Monday. (Celal Gunes/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

"What's your question?" Patel responded. "My email? I'm not going to pull up my email from the podium."

"You don't have to show it to me, I want to know if you noticed anything different in the ‘from’ line, where it gives the sender," Lee replied.

Patel, growing visibly frustrated, said he was unaware of any such change.

"Within the last hour and a half… the State Department's internal email system — and I tested this, so I know that it's true — has added pronouns to people's — not their signature — but to where it says 'from,'" Lee said. "Why?" 

"This is not something that anybody has a choice about," he continued, "and so I'm wondering why and who made this decision."

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U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

A flustered Patel said he was unfamiliar with the "phenomenon," to which Lee replied, "Will you look into it?"

The AP reporter went on to emphasize that not only is the imposed policy "not optional," but he believes it has attributed the wrong pronouns to email senders who used the agency's server. 

"I'd like to know why this would not be an optional thing… the problem is that a lot of them, or at least some of them so far, as I’ve been able to tell, are wrong. They’re giving the wrong pronouns. So men are being identified as women and women as men... and this has nothing to do with whatever transgender or anything like that… but It's ridiculous," Lee said.

When Patel tried to stress the right of individuals to include their preferred pronouns, Lee interjected, "I don't have a problem with doing it and if people want their pronouns attached to it, it's fine! But it should be a choice. Not something the State Department imposes on people, especially if it's wrong," he said.

The State Department said Thursday in a statement that its Outlook server involuntarily added gender pronouns to employee emails. (CyberGuy.com)

Patel said he would "look into this." The heated exchange seemingly concluded the question portion of his briefing.

State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller issued a response to Lee's question on Twitter later Thursday, claiming that the department's Outlook server involuntarily added gender pronouns to employee emails.

"The State Department’s Bureau of Information Resource Management (IRM) is aware of the recent issues with user profiles on Microsoft Outlook and working to remedy the situation," he wrote. "This change was unintentional and the bureau is working to correct this immediately."

The State Department has been accused of going "woke" under the Biden administration with its heightened focus on pronouns and LGBTQ+ issues internally. The department previously took heat for celebrating "International Pronouns Day" amid a series of global crises that critics argued better deserved its attention.

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"Today on International Pronouns Day, we share why many people list pronouns on their email and social media profiles," the department tweeted in October 2021.

This week, Secretary of State Anthony Blinken commemorated "International Day Against Homophobia, Biphobia, Interphobia, and Transphobia" on Twitter, calling for an end to "harmful conversion therapy practices, including those that attempt to change a person’s sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, or sex characteristics. "