Proposed rule changes for the new 117th Congress include replacing the use of “gendered language” with gender-neutral terms when referring to family members.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Mass.), the chairman of the Rules Committee, unveiled their proposed changes on Friday.
“As House Speaker, I am pleased to join Chairman Jim McGovern in introducing this visionary rules package, which reflects the views and values of the full range of our historically diverse House Democratic Majority,” Pelosi said in a statement.
According to Pelosi, the Democrats’ House rule changes will “honor all gender identities” by “changing pronouns and familial relationships… to be gender-neutral.”
Terms like “father” and “mother” would be replaced by “parent.” “Brother” and “sister” would be axed in favor of “sibling.” Under these rules, House members would be required to refer to their “husband” or “wife” as their “spouse” or their son(s) and daughter(s) as child(ren). The rules also would change “seamen” to “seafarers,” (okay, maybe that makes sense) but it would also change “chairman” or “chairwoman” to “chair.”
In clause 8(c)(3) of rule XXIII, strike ‘‘father, mother, son, daughter, brother, sister, uncle, aunt, first cousin, nephew, niece, husband, wife, father-in-law, mother-in-law, son-in-law, daughter-in-law, brother-in-law, sister-in-law, stepfather, stepmother, stepson, stepdaughter, stepbrother, stepsister, half brother, half sister, grandson, or granddaughter’’ and insert ‘‘parent, child, sibling, parent’s sibling, first cousin, sibling’s child, spouse, parent-in-law, child-in-law, sibling-in-law, stepparent, stepchild, stepsibling, half-sibling, or grandchild’’
Can we stop the insanity, please?
“Thanks to the leadership of Chairman McGovern and our Members, Democrats have crafted a package of unprecedented, bold reforms, which will make the House more accountable, transparent and effective in our work to meet the needs of the American people,” Pelosi said.
How is compelling House members to use gender-neutral language meeting the needs of the American people? Why should any House member be compelled to use gender-neutral language in reference to a family member who doesn’t actually want to be referred to with gender-neutral language? This is hardcore pandering to the transgender movement. It was bad enough when we were asked—I mean told—to address people by their “preferred” pronouns because of their delusions of gender nonconformity. Asking House members to refer to their own family members with gender-neutral terms has nothing to do with respecting gender identity or inclusion, it has to do with forced compliance with transgender ideology. Apparently, to the left, being inclusive now means denying the ability to acknowledge the gender of one’s own family members.
On Thursday, Nancy Pelosi appointed the first female congressional chaplain in the history of the lawmaking body. Is such a historic first even relevant anymore when Pelosi wants House members to refer to their own family members in gender-neutral terms?
The proposed rules changes can be read in full here.
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Matt Margolis is the author of Airborne: How The Liberal Media Weaponized The Coronavirus Against Donald Trump, and the bestselling book The Worst President in History: The Legacy of Barack Obama. You can follow Matt on Twitter @MattMargolis
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