Texas Governor Abbott and DOGE head Elon Musk were among top political officials who gloated on social media over the firing of a state worker who was fired after he refused to remove his pronouns from his email signature line.

“A Texas state employee refused to remove pronouns from email signature. He was fired before noon,” Mr. Abbott said in a post on X, along with a link from the Austin American-Statesman that reported on Frank Zamora being terminated from his position as a program manager with the Texas Real Estate Commission after he refused to remove the phrase “He/Him” from the tagline.

Mr. Musk replied to Gov. Abbott’s post with two fire emojis, seemingly in favor of the move.

Not long after President Trump signed an executive order on the day of his inauguration titled “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government,” which recognized only two sexes — male and female — Abbott issued his own directive with similar language. State Agencies, including TREC, issued new rules and guidelines to their employees to comply with the new order.

“Greetings all. It was a beautiful weekend in Austin, and I hope you were able to enjoy it … On a very different note, based on a recent directive from Governor Abbott, the agency is modifying its employee email signature block template by removing preferred pronouns,” reads a recent email from a TREC supervisor obtained by the Guardian.

“The new template is attached. Please look at your signature and make sure yours complies. I understand this change may have an impact on employees and I am sensitive to that. The governor, however, has directed the agency to act and so we will.”

Mr. Zamora, a cis-gendered male who uses he/him pronouns on his signature in solidarity with transgender individuals, told the Statesman that he was given an ultimatum — remove the pronouns or resign from his position. 

He chose to do neither, which led to him ultimately being fired.

“I could not, in good conscience, contribute to those actions in any way — no matter how small,” Mr. Zamora told the Statesman, adding that he was fired after refusing to comply.

“There have been multiple occasions when I stop, and I ask myself, ‘Is this really happening?'” he said. “I mean, I’m talking about pronouns.”

“That someone should be fired over it, that it’s become this politicized and this weaponized, is not only ridiculous, but a little bit laughable.”

In a statement to the newspaper, a TREC spokeswoman declined to comment on Mr. Zamora’s termination, citing that the agency does not comment on specific personnel matters.

“As a Texas state agency within the executive branch, we follow Gov. Abbott’s directives.”