The White House website has been updated to allow visitors to specify what pronouns they use.
According to NBC News, the contact form on whitehouse.gov has a new drop-down menu with pronoun options, including “she/her,” “he/him,” “they/them,” “other,” “prefer not to share,” and the option to write down their own selections. The list of prefixes has also been updated to include the gender-neutral “Mx.” along with “Mr.” “Mrs.” and “Ms.”
“Allowing visitors, whether transgender, nonbinary, or cisgender-identified, to indicate their preferred pronouns when visiting the home of President Biden demonstrates the kind of welcoming place 1600 Pennsylvania will be now for all Americans,” Raffi Freedman-Gurspan, the first openly transgender person to work as a White House staffer, told NBC News.
Sarah Kate Ellis, the president and CEO of GLAAD, celebrated the update as “more than just a demonstration of allyship.”
“Research has shown that recognition and respect of our pronouns can make all the difference for our health and well-being – especially when it comes to LGBTQ youth,” Ellis said. According to research from the Trevor Project, one in four LGBTQ youth use gender neutral pronouns.