White House Website Includes Pronouns on Contact Form

Changes to the White House website were quickly implemented on Wednesday, January 20, after President Biden’s inauguration. There is now an option for those who wish to contact the White House to state their preferred pronouns. The form allows users to choose pronouns from a number of options, including “she/her,” “he/him,” “they/them,” “other,” or “prefer not to share.” Also available under the “prefix” tab is the gender-neutral “Mx.”

Albeit small, this feature comes as an initial implementation of the promises Biden has made to the LGBTQ community, ones of protection and support from his administration. Normalizing the use of pronouns in the White House is a goal that once felt far-off, but now, this option on the website gives trans and nonbinary people hope for what may come over the next four years. 

In addition to the inclusion of pronouns on the contact form, other adjustments have appeared as well. These include a Spanish language version of the website, accessibility features like dark mode and a large text option, as well as the administration’s updated priorities. The climate emergency, social justice issues, and healthcare are all included on the priority list, previously having been stripped from the website by the Trump Administration. 

Biden has also begun to implement more positive changes for the LGBTQ community in his cabinet selection and executive orders. On Tuesday, Biden promoted Rachel Levine, the openly transgender Pennsylvania Secretary of Health, as the assistant secretary of health for the Department of Health and Human Services.

Also on his first day in office, Biden signed an executive order ensuring federal agencies cannot discriminate based on sexual orientation or gender expression and identity. The promises he made to expand on LGBTQ rights in his first 100 days in office are largely yet to come, but the changes that have been implemented so far give LGBTQ people everywhere some hope for the future.