Indiana GOP lieutenant governor nominee says he'll fire state workers with email signature pronouns

At a recent campaign event in Bloomington, Indiana’s Republican lieutenant governor nominee, Micah Beckwith, made clear the extreme direction he plans to take the state if elected. Beckwith, speaking at the Monroe County Republican Party’s October 1 dinner meeting, announced plans to fire state employees who use pronouns in their email signatures, framing the practice as a marker of “far-left” ideology, according to a video uploaded to YouTube by the Bloomingtonian. His remarks are part of a broader attack on LGBTQ+ rights and personal freedom in Indiana, raising serious concerns about the future of workplace inclusion and the state’s economy.

“If I get an email from anyone in my office or in agencies that I oversee as lieutenant governor, and their signature has their pronouns on it, they’re going to be gone,” Beckwith told a supportive crowd. He justified this draconian stance by claiming that employees who acknowledge gender diversity “don’t have a grasp on reality,” further escalating his rhetoric against Indiana’s LGBTQ+ community.

However, this policy could have a far greater impact than Beckwith’s direct targeting. LGBTQ+ advocates warn that the Indiana state government employs people across essential sectors, including education, health care, social services, and law enforcement. By threatening to fire employees over something as simple as using pronouns, they argue Beckwith’s policy would destabilize the workforce, compromise vital public services, and discourage private businesses that value diversity and inclusion from investing in the state.

The Indiana Capital Chronicle reports that state employment has only recently recovered from the pandemic, reaching pre-pandemic levels with over 32,075 state employees working across 80 different state agencies and departments. The report highlights how the state has struggled with high turnover rates in recent years, especially in sectors like corrections and child services. Policies like Beckwith’s could drive this number down again.

G. David Caudill, founder and executive director of Equality Indiana, called out Beckwith’s pronoun policy as an expected move from someone with such a far-right agenda. “I am confident that the Indiana LGBTQ+ community would join me as not being surprised or shocked that Republican Lt. Governor candidate Micah Beckwith, who is a well-known Christian Nationalist and extremist, would make a public statement about changing state employment policy in a Braun-Beckwith administration that would discipline or terminate an employee based only on the common customer-friendly business practice of using their preferred pronouns in an email signature,” Caudill said in a statement to The Advocate.

Caudill’s concerns extend beyond Beckwith. He notes that his running mate, U.S. Sen. Mike Braun, shares similarly dangerous views. Braun has a documented history of voting against LGBTQ+ rights, including voting against the Respect for Marriage Act and writing an opinion piece opposing the Equality Act.

Beckwith’s anti-pronoun stance aligns with Braun’s documented history of undermining equality efforts. In a 2021 op-ed for the Washington Examiner, Braun railed against the Equality Act, which seeks to protect LGBTQ+ individuals from discrimination, calling it a “radical social upheaval.” He argued that gender identity protections would infringe on religious liberties and dismissed the importance of recognizing people’s gender identity in everyday life.

At the Indiana GOP State Convention in June, Braun publicly praised Beckwith, saying, “Everything you believe in, I have as well,” the Herald-Times reported.

“A Braun-Beckwith administration would steer the state of Indiana to the bottom of any metric that measures a successful, welcoming state for anyone and everyone, but specifically LGBTQ Americans,” Caudill said.

Watch Micah Beckwith’s promise to fire people with pronouns in their state email signatures below.

- YouTubeyoutu.be