Exclusive: Trump administration banned chosen names at FDA, NIH under new gender policy
Employees of the Food and Drug Administration and the National Institutes of Health are being told to use their legal names in official systems, a move the agencies say is in response to President Donald Trump's executive order that reversed protections for transgender people.
The policies affect transgender employees who use a name that aligns with their gender identity rather than the sex they were assigned at birth. But the policies can also affect married women who choose to go by their maiden name at work, and people who go by middle names, initials, or shorten their first names, for example from James to Jim.
The FDA and NIH policies go beyond a January directive from the Office of Personnel Management that ordered agencies to purge contracts and content related to gender identity and turn off features on email platforms 'that prompt users for their pronouns.' Both agencies are part of the Department of Health and Human Services.
Media representatives for the White House, the Department of Health and Human Services, and NIH did not respond to USA TODAY's request for comment. The FDA website refers media inquiries to the Department of Health and Human Services.
A March 14 memo to FDA employees obtained by USA TODAY said Department of Health and Human Services policy only allows employees to use 'full legal name' in their email signatures and cannot use pronouns or what the agency calls 'nicknames.'
The memo said it was in response to President Donald Trump's Jan. 20 executive order called 'Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government.' The order declared the government only recognized two sexes — male and female — that it says are determined at conception.
The National Institutes of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases told employees March 13 that employees had until the end of the day to remove pronouns and "nicknames" from email signatures, and that they could only use "full legal names." The memo cited guidance from the Department of Health and Human Services.
The NIH sent a similar memo March 21 announcing that the agency was removing 'preferred name' information in an internal contact system in order to comply with Health and Human Services policy on 'nicknames' and the 'Defending Women' executive order.
The email also warned employees against changing their legal names in the system: 'Please be aware that any change to your legal name in (the database) will trigger a new background check and a new HHS badge request.'
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"It's showing how far they're willing to go for an anti-trans agenda," said Adrian Shanker, the former deputy assistant secretary for Health and Human Services under former President Joe Biden who led LGBT policymaking.
A National Institute of Health employee who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of retaliation criticized the move as an attack on transgender employees that goes against the agency's tradition of trans inclusion.
"They work with scientists and scientists tend to be people who understand the basics of the diversity of humans," Shanker said. He said that meant the agency historically "brought in a workforce that believe in being an inclusive work environment and I think that's one of the reasons it's so shocking."
Lindsay Dhanani, an associate professor of human resource management at Rutgers University in New Jersey, said choosing a name and pronouns is a big step for transgender people, and when people around them don't use those names or pronouns, 'that causes a lot of damage for people.'
She said not honoring a person's name or pronouns are some of the most common forms of transphobia, and transphobia can lead to anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder, and suicide.
However, 'when firms adopt policies that encourage all employees to bring their whole selves to the workplace, they tend to be more productive and may benefit by becoming an employer of choice,' a 2017 study published in the academic journal Human Resources Management found.
Another NIH employee, who spoke on the condition of anonymity out of fear of losing her job, said the policy has confused colleagues who could not find her in the employee database, since she has always used her maiden name at work in order to maintain consistency in her scientific publications. Her legal name is her married name.
USA TODAY requested a full copy of the Department of Health and Human Services policy on 'nicknames' that is referenced in the National Institutes of Health and Food and Drug Administration memos, but the department did not provide it, instead pointing to a press release about what the administration calls 'gender ideology.'
'This administration is bringing back common sense and restoring biological truth to the federal government,' Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. said in the release. 'The prior administration's policy of trying to engineer gender ideology into every aspect of public life is over.'
Trump's executive order required agencies to make sure identification documents such as passports and visas "accurately reflect" a person's sex. The order also questioned a 2020 Supreme Court case that made it illegal for employers to fire someone for being gay or transgender, and ordered the attorney general to "correct the misapplication" of the Supreme Court decision.
The Office of Personnel Management ordered agencies to "disband or cancel" employee resource groups that "promote gender ideology," and make sure that bathrooms are "designated by biological sex and not gender identity," among other things.
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Websites for agencies within the Department of Health and Human Services now often show formal names for its leaders. The head of the Food and Drug Administration, who is often called Marty, is listed as Dr. Martin Makary on the official website. Kennedy's official bio lists him by his full name and briefly references him as 'Bobby Jr.'
But Dr. Jayanta Bhattacharya, who went by 'Jay' in his previous academic position, is continuing to use his nickname in government. It appeared in the headline of an April 1 press release, his official biography, and multiple tweets published on official social media accounts. An essay published last week also used Bhattacharya's nickname in the signature.
Dhanani criticized Bhattacharya's use of his nickname, and said it 'demonstrates that the rule isn't for everybody' and 'to me it demonstrates the intention behind the policy.'
'If the rule isn't motivated by disallowing trans people to be themselves, then it has to apply to everybody, and if you're in a leadership position, the modeling of this applying to everybody starts with you,' she said.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Exclusive: FDA, NIH ban chosen names in response to Trump gender order
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