(LifeSiteNews) — I cannot be the only one who has to frequently double-check headlines not only to make sure that they aren’t misinformation, but to ensure that the headline is not something from The Babylon Bee (something the satire site has had to address by releasing a second site, “Not the Bee: What A Time to Be Alive.”) I’m pretty sure, however, that the Biden Administration has topped The Bee with this beauty: “State Department Offers Counseling To Misgendered Employees Triggered By Email Pronoun Debacle.”
Apparently, according to the Washington Free Beacon, a system-wide email glitch at the State Department temporarily (and randomly) assigned pronouns to staff members, with emails including “She/her/hers” or “He/Him/His” in the “from” line of the email.” The glitch resulted from an attempt by the State Department to change the system to allow for the declaration of “preferred pronouns,” but instead assigned incorrect pronouns to various employees.
“I want to stress that the intent behind making this feature available is to make our systems more inclusive and provide employees with options – not to make decisions for them,” Kelly E. Fletcher, the State Department’s chief information officer, wrote in the email. “I recognize that this error had the opposite effect, and again, I am very sorry. [The State Department] is testing a new feature that will provide users with the option to include their preferred pronouns in their Global Address list file. During the test, the feature inadvertently went live, and a large number of employees had randomly assigned pronouns added to their profiles.”
In response, as per an internal email, the State Department will now offer free counseling to “any employee who feels hurt or upset as a result of this unfortunate mistake,” with Secretary of State Antony Blinken stating solemnly that: “I deeply regret the confusion and distress this mistake caused our workforce.” Fletcher also noted that: “I deeply regret the confusion and distress this mistake has caused our workforce.”
While this may seem like the panicked over-reaction of a woke State Department – do adult government officials really need therapy over a technological glitch? – the offer of “professional counseling” was, in fact, necessary. One source told the Free Beacon that: “This is distracting from the work that we are actually supposed to be doing. A lot of people here have been triggered today.”
“Triggered.” At the State Department. Yeah, you read that right. “Pronouns,” as I’m sure you all know, have become a very big deal – which is why the University of California – San Diego has launched “The Pronouns Project.” The title of their project? “It’s Time to Care About Pronouns.” Implied: Or else. An excerpt:
Sometimes, beauty can grow from hardship. The Pronouns Project, a campus advocacy organization focused on gender inclusivity, was born out of friendship and the shared experience of misgendering – being referred to with incorrect pronouns – on campus. ‘We were all hurt and angry that people misgendered us and that’s how we really bonded,’ said co-founder Angelina Lopez (who uses they/them pronouns).
Founded in spring 2022 by Lopez, Kyra Black (who uses they/them pronouns) and Aliyah Annis (who uses she/they pronouns), the Pronouns Project aims to center student experiences and amplify student voices in campus conversations around gender diversity. Students can fill out an anonymous form to report misgendering, transphobia or microaggressions that occur on campus. They may also request that the Pronouns Project reach out to the misgendering individual or group on their behalf to hold them accountable, prevent future incidents and provide education.
A decade ago, stuff like this got mocked as the fanaticism of far-left campus protestors. Times have changed. The ideologies that incubated on campuses have reached to the highest echelons of power, and now the U.S. Secretary of State is delivering an apology for “misgendering” and offering his staff therapy in case they’ve been triggered (which, as it turns out, is the case). As Andrew Sullivan put it in an unfortunately prescient 2018 essay: “We all live on campus now.”
