The Texas governor, Greg Abbott, and later Elon Musk, showed their support on Wednesday for the dismissal of a state employee who refused to remove his pronouns from his work email signature. Frank Zamora, a 31-year-old program manager at the Texas Real Estate Commission, was fired last month for not compliance with the organization’s mandate to remove gender pronouns from email signatures.

Zamora anticipated this change, as many changes at the federal level were being mirrored at the state level. Abbott celebrated the move on social media, stating that the state employee who refused to remove pronouns from his email signature was fired before noon. Musk, who was appointed by Donald Trump to lead the so-called “department of government efficiency,” replied to Abbott’s post with two fire emojis.

After Trump signed an executive order titled “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government” in January, Abbott issued a directive for the state with similar language. State agencies, including the TREC, interpreted Abbott’s directive and issued rules and guidelines to employees, which included removing gender pronouns from official work communications.

Zamora’s supervisor at the TREC sent an email to employees, informing them of the change in the email signature block template due to Abbott’s directive. Zamora recognized that his employer had the right to dictate how he addressed the public, but believed that the directive was part of a broader effort to erase the acknowledgment of non-binary, intersex, and transgender persons in Texas.

Zamora announced his refusal to remove his pronouns in a letter to his supervisors, saying that he wouldn’t remove them based on his personal beliefs. He stated that political beliefs change, but a career is for life. After sending the letter, Zamora was given the choice between removing the pronouns, resigning, or being terminated. He chose to keep the pronouns and was fired in the first week of February.

When asked about the response from Abbott and Musk, Zamora said that they were doing what they must to appease the influential groups that keep them in power. He added that pronouns are a function of grammar and that making them a politicized topic is a culture war. He believes that the LGBTQ+ community, including trans individuals, non-binary, intersex, or anyone who chooses to display their preferred pronouns, should not be used as political collateral.

The TREC did not respond to a request for comment.

Source: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025/mar/06/musk-greg-abbott-fired-worker-pronouns