Shaking Our Heads... State Department Offers Therapy Services For Those Triggered By This Email...

The department encouraged employees to contact the Employee Consultation Service if they were upset about the mix-up.

The glitch on Thursday randomly assigned pronouns to the "from" line in emails, often giving men female pronouns and women male pronouns. One employee described the incident as a distraction from their work and said, "a lot of people here have been triggered today."

According to the Washington Free Beacon, the State Department's Chief Information Officer, Kelly E. Fletcher, said the organization was testing a new feature allowing users to include their preferred pronouns in their Global Address List profile.

 WATCH: SPEAKER JOHNSON CALLS ON COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESIDENT TO RESIGN

The part inadvertently went live, and many employees had randomly assigned pronouns added to their profiles. Fletcher apologized for the error, saying, "I deeply regret the confusion and distress this mistake caused our workforce."

May 22, 2023

On Thursday, a reporter with the Associated Press, Matt Lee, questioned Principal Deputy Spokesperson Vedant Patel about the agency's decision to force wrong pronouns into their emails. Patel said hedid not know aboutf the "phenomenon."

 A CRYING SHAME: PRO-PALESTINIAN PROTESTS FORCE USC TO CANCEL PRIMARY GRADUATION EVENT

In 2021, the State Department celebrated International Pronouns Day with a Tweet that explained: "why many people list pronouns on their email and social media profiles."

According to Fletcher, the department's intent behind the feature was to make its systems more inclusive and provide employees with options, not to make decisions for them. She added that she recognized that the error had the opposite effect and apologized for any distress caused.