The Biden administration has been accused of peddling ‘woke madness’ after a top U.S. government watchdog banned the use of gendered language in the workplace.
Leaked internal memos obtained by DailyMail.com show the Government Accountability Office forbids employees from using male and female terms.
The agency, whose role is to scrutinize administration spending, issued the bizarre diktat in October 2022 at the behest of its so-called ‘chief diversity management officer.’
The ‘style guide’ demands an end to ‘non-inclusive terminology’ and said the GAO’s 3,100-strong army of bureaucrats should avoid ‘wording that diminishes anyone’s dignity.’
The four-page rant, which was posted on the GAO intranet, bans staff from using words such as ‘man-made’ or ‘manpower’ in official communications.
The Biden administration has been accused of peddling ‘woke madness’ after a top U.S. government watchdog banned the use of gendered language in the workplace
The document suggests alternatives such as ‘artificial’ or ‘workforce’ instead.
Officials are also subjected to a lecture on gender identity, an issue that has irked top Republican lawmakers nationwide.
‘When it is necessary to refer to sex or gender identity, be aware of the distinction and avoid equating the two,’ the leaked memo reads.
‘Sex is a classification of people into categories such as male, female or intersex on the basis of biological characteristics.
‘Gender identity is a person’s innermost concept of self as male, female, a blend of both, or neither.
‘Gender identity may align with the sex a person was assigned at birth (cisgender), another sex (transgender), or neither.
‘A person whose gender identity does not align with their sex assigned at birth or with another sex may identify as nonbinary, agender, or gender fluid, among other identities.’
But the GAO’s self-styled ‘diversity czar’ appeared unable to offer conclusive instructions on which words the agency’s pen-pushers should use and when.
‘When it is necessary to use binary terminology, avoid implying that all people identify with the sex or gender binaries or that all people share the biological characteristics of their assigned sex,’ the memo reads. ‘Choose the best set of terms for your facts and circumstances.’
The agency, whose role is to scrutinize administration spending, issued the bizarre diktat in October 2022 at the behest of its so-called ‘chief diversity management officer’
Officials are also subjected to a lecture on gender identity, an issue that has irked top Republican lawmakers nationwide
And in an equally head-scratching decree on written communications, it tells employees that footnotes ‘may also be appropriate when your choice of inclusive language could be unfamiliar or confusing.’
Employees are also told to avoid ‘dehumanizing’ people by using the terms ‘alien’ or ‘illegal immigrants’ to describe foreigners who have broken into the United States.
‘Instead, use more inclusive and respectful terms to people’s immigration status as appropriate,’ the order reads.
‘The choice of the term should depend on the population being described, but options may include ‘non citizen’ ‘foreign national’, ‘migrant’, ‘undocumented migrants’ or ‘undocumented immigrants’.
The existence of the memo was first confirmed at a Senate heating with GAO boss Gene Dodaro (above, center) last month. But its contents have not been made available until now.
Senator Ron Johnson (R-WI) accused Joe Biden of ‘forcing a woke ideology down our throats’ instead of focusing on the real issues facing the country
Senator Ron Johnson, a Republican representing Wisconsin, said: ‘If Biden and the radical leftists in his administration focused on the real problems facing America — forty-year high inflation, out of control crime, open borders and a flood of deadly drugs — instead of forcing a woke ideology down our throats, our country would be in a far better position to tackle the problems he has exacerbated.’
Nile Gardiner of the Heritage Foundation, a conservative think-tank, blasted the GAO’s blacklist of banned words as ‘truly sinister, nefarious and dangerous.’
‘This is the latest woke madness from the Orwellian Biden administration and this is an illustration of a presidency that has gone completely insane,’ the director of the organization’s Margaret Thatcher Center for Freedom said.
‘Dictating what language can and cannot be used is not what a free country is all about,’ he added.
And last month, Senator James Lankford of Oklahoma, who first unearthed the memo, told the agency ‘to stay out of cultural battles’ in a hearing with GAO boss Gene Dodaro.
Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., told DailyMail.com that the leaked document is an indication that the Biden administration ‘is working overtime to radically transform America and destroy what was common sense just a few years ago.’
She quipped that ‘any Tennessee momma’ can tell you the difference between a man and a woman, while the Biden administration and its employees may not be able to.
A spokesperson for Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, chimed in: ‘The GAO is tasked with investigating federal spending and performance, but under President Biden they’re wasting valuable government time and resources on regulating language.’
The spokesperson told DailyMail.com that the GAO’s memo ‘is just the latest in Biden’s relentless push to politicize government agencies’ that are supposed to be neutral.
‘Unfortunately this is typical of the radicals in control of the Biden administration.’
A GAO spokesman said: ‘This language is currently under review and changes are being considered.’
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