(LifeSiteNews) — Last May, President Joe Biden sent out a presidential proclamation calling on Americans to celebrate Mother’s Day and celebrated the essential role that mothers play in the lives of their children. I’ve wondered for awhile how long it will be before Mother’s Day gets cancelled, considering the fact that the LGBT movement celebrates the idea that two men can rent a woman for 9 months and purchase a child, who will be raised motherless. Back in 2019, a CBC opinion columnist wrote that Mother’s Day and Father’s Day are “exclusionary” because of the existence of LGBT families and that it shouldn’t be celebrated in schools.
Presumably, Secretary of State Antony Blinken will tell his boss that a similar proclamation this Mother’s Day is inappropriate — at least, if a February 5 memo leaked to National Review recently is any indication. Blinken’s memo, titled “Modeling DEIA: Gender Identity Best Practices” (that stands for “diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility” — these acronyms keep getting longer), informs State Department employees that they should no longer use “gendered” terms such as “mother,” “father,” and “manpower” due to the fact that gender is a social construct. The memo explicitly endorses transgender ideology, noting that a person’s gender identity “may or may not correspond with one’s sex assigned at birth.”
Blinken’s “best practices” include using “gender-neutral language whenever possible” and strenuously avoiding “misgendering” in order to “show respect and avoid misunderstandings.” (“Misgendering” is an Orwellian term used by the transgender movement to refer to using the pronouns that correspond with someone’s biological sex.) Treading carefully, Blinken suggested that his employees provide their “preferred pronouns” in emails and at meetings, but also hastened to say that people could not be “pressure[d] to state their pronouns.” In case that isn’t confusing enough, the Secretary of State, which used to be a serious job, also warned that assuming someone’s gender based on their name or appearance can send a “harmful, exclusionary message” and “can be problematic.”
To sum up: Don’t pressure someone to supply their “preferred pronouns” because that’s problematic, but it is also problematic to assume their gender, but even worse to misgender. Carry on with your day, and good luck out there!
But there’s more. According to Blinken: “Commonly used pronouns could include she/her, he/him, they/them, and ze/zir. This is a personal decision that should be respected.” Which, it must be pointed out, is complete nonsense—“ze/zir” are not pronouns, and are not “commonly used.” In fact, it is difficult to discern how they’re supposed to be used to begin with—this guide, which I found after a Google search, only makes it more confusing. Meanwhile, actually commonly used terms and phrases that Blinken says should not be used include: manpower, you guys, ladies and gentlemen, mother/father, son/daughter, and husband/wife. Possible replacements include: labor force, everyone, you all, parent, child, spouse, or partner. Blinken goes so far as to say: “When speaking, avoid using phrases like ‘brave men and women on the front lines…use more specific language such as ‘brave first responders,’ ‘brave soldiers,’ or ‘brave DS agents.’”
The coup de grace of Blinken’s memo is his advice to those who might screw up this maze of instructions and use the wrong pronouns. If (or likely when) this happens, says Blinken, it should be navigated with “subtlety and grace,” adding that it must be remembered that one’s gender identity “may be fluid, so remain attuned to and supportive of shifts in pronouns.” In other words, better luck next time! While keeping all of this in mind, State Department employees are also expected to assist in running the foreign policy of the world’s currently reigning superpower, which involves exporting the ideology of Blinken’s memo to developing countries.
The Babylon Bee couldn’t have come up with better stuff.
