U.S. House adopts sweeping gender-neutral language rules

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The House has adopted new rules for 2021 that remove gendered language in official settings, replacing gendered terms like “chairman” or “chairwoman” with gender-neutral terms like “chair.”

“Through months of consultation across our caucus and Congress, we have developed a rules package that makes the People’s House more accountable and responsive to all Americans,” House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said in a statement in support of the rules, adding that they express “the views and values of the full range of our historically diverse House Democratic Majority.”

Related: Here are the most popular gender-neutral baby names in America

The package of rules passed in a party-line vote of 217-206 on Monday. The changes include:

• “Seamen” will become “seafarers.”
• “Chairman” will become “Chair.”
• Familial relationships like father, daughter, and niece will be replaced by gender-neutral equivalents like parent, child, and sibling’s child.
• Some phrases that use “he or she” will be reworded, like “submit his or her resignation” in one rule will be changed to “resign.” In other places, it will be replaced with “such Member, Delegate, or Resident Commissioner .”
• The word “themself” will replace “himself or herself.”

There are currently no members of the U.S. House who use they/them pronouns, but the moves will make the legislative body more accepting to non-binary people who may be elected in the future….

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