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Pelosi Proposes Major Change To House Rules — Seeks To Drop “Gendered Terms” Such as “Father, Daughter, Mother, And Son” To Be More “Inclusive”

By • January 2, 2021 4:24 pm

House Democrats are pitching a major change in the rules of the House of Representatives, such as removing all ‘gendered’ terms and making the recently established House ‘Office of Diversity and Inclusion’ permanent.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said changing pronouns and dropping familial relationships is meant to make the House rules more “gender neutral.”

“This package, which will be introduced and voted on once the new Congress convenes, includes sweeping ethics reforms, increases accountability for the American people, and makes this House of Representatives the most inclusive in history,” Speaker Pelosi and Rules Committee Chairman James McGovern said in a statement.

The proposal would include more “gender-inclusive” language in the House rules and will eliminate the “gendered” terms in the centuries-old rules.

It will also establish the “Select Committee on Economic Disparity and Fairness in Growth,” which would require Congress to “honor all gender identities by changing pronouns and familial relationships in the House rules to be gender neutral.”

“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.

“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,” she added, noting that these are “future-focused proposals” that reflect the Democrats’ “priorities as a caucus and as a country.”

Under clause 8(c)(3) rule XXIII, gendered terms, such as “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” will be dropped.

Instead, in their place, terms such as “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” will be adopted.

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy mocked the proposal as social media users lashed at the House leadership for “going too far.”

“This is stupid. Signed, – A father, son, and brother,” Rep. McCarthy of California wrote on Twitter.

https://twitter.com/3youandme/status/1345094329883262976

https://twitter.com/darthnando3/status/1345088731020226560

The changes to the House rules will be voted by the incoming 117th Congress after they’re sworn in on Sunday, January 3.

Steeve Strange

Steeve is the CEO & Co-Founder of The Scoop.
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