Gov. Chris Sununu has issued his verdict on the so-called “Inclusive Language” guidance from his administration’s tech department, urging state agencies to drop words like “normal” and use “they” in place of “he” or “she” on their websites.
It’s “nuts.”
A post from the Department of Information Technology (DoIT) on the state’s internal network urges agencies to avoid common words and phrases that Director of User Experience Kathryn Michener considers potentially offensive. Among them are “citizens, “grandfathered,” “man-made,” and the use of the colloquial “guys” to refer to a group of people.
NHJournal broke the story of the “inclusive language” website on Tuesday. DoIT Commissioner Denis Goulet defended the guidelines as suggestions meant to help state employees when they update language on agency websites. He also told NHJournal he did not know what sources Michener relied on to determine which words and phrases are taboo.
By Wednesday morning, the Granite State government guidelines were a top talk-radio topic, and national news outlets had picked up the story.
“I can’t believe this is New Hampshire and not California,” said radio host Jack Heath. “And this is a recommended language choice for state employees — they don’t want you to use the word ‘citizen’ because it may be offensive to foreign guests.”
In an interview on Heath’s show, GOP gubernatorial candidate Chuck Morse said the guidelines didn’t fit New Hampshire. “My priority is not ‘wokeness.’ New Hampshire is where ‘woke’ goes to die.”
Republican Kelly Ayotte’s campaign spokesman, John Corbett, weighed in as well. “This is some Massachusetts-like craziness. Let’s just use common sense and focus on keeping our state safe, prosperous, and free.”
By mid-afternoon, Sununu had had enough.
“Once the governor and commissioner [Goulet] were made aware of this internal online post within the past 24 hours, the commissioner underwent an expedited review and determined this document was not published appropriately as the content does not reflect how we want to operate. The post has been removed, and protocols have been implemented to ensure this doesn’t happen,” according to a statement from the Governor’s Office.
Sununu added his own coda to the conversation.
“I thought the post was nuts and contacted Commissioner Goulet to ascertain whether this was grandfathered in from a previous administration or if it followed normal protocols for approval. Don’t worry, guys; he assured me that the citizens of New Hampshire can sleep easy knowing this post has been taken down.”
This isn’t the first time Sununu has been bitten by politically-correct content coming from inside his administration.
In January 2023, Sununu confronted the leadership of his Department of Health and Human Services over a series of tweets spreading misinformation regarding climate change and vaping.
And earlier this year, Sununu’s commissioner for the Department of Natural and Cultural Resources, Sarah Stewart, approved an official historic marker honoring one-time Communist Party USA Chairwoman Elizabeth Gurley Flynn. Born in Concord, the unapologetic Stalinist was given a state funeral in Moscow’s Red Square by the Soviet government in 1964 at the height of the Cold War.
Sununu soon ordered the marker removed. A handful of New Hampshire progressives are in court attempting to force the state to replace the marker honoring the loyal Communist.
(NOTE: The complete text of the “Embracing Inclusive Language” guidance can be found here.)
