House Democrats introduced proposed changes to the House rules on Friday that would eliminate all “gendered” language and make permanent the recently established House “Office of Diversity and Inclusion.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Rules Committee Chairman James McGovern, D-Mass., claimed the new rules — specifically the one on “gendered” phrases — are necessary because “changing pronouns and familial relationships in the House rules to be gender neutral” will ensure that representatives “honor all gender identities.”
As part of this new initiative, House Democrats ended a prayer by saying “Amen and a-woman” in an attempt to include both genders.
But as many critics pointed out, the word “Amen” has nothing to do with gender:
Dems open congress with a prayer that ends “amen and awoman.” Amen is a Latin word that means “truly” or “so be it.” Awoman is a nonsense word that means nothing. Dems find a way to make everything stupid and nonsensical. Utter clowns, all of them.
— Matt Walsh (@MattWalshBlog) January 3, 2021
Under the new House rules, all words considered “gendered” would be changed to be “gender-inclusive.”
Instead of words like “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,” representatives would be required to use language like “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.”
Representatives would be discouraged from using pronouns at all, according to the new rules.
The word “Chairman” would be replaced with “Chair.”
Phrases such as “he or she serves” would be replaced by “such member, delegate, or resident commissioner serves.”
And “himself” or “herself” would be replaced by “themselves.”
“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 in a statement.
In response, several Republicans mocked the proposed changes.
This is stupid.
Signed,
– A father, son, and brother https://t.co/bG9SlRAy6N
— Kevin McCarthy (@GOPLeader) January 2, 2021
Democrats are banning “gendered” pronouns from House rules:
Banned words: “father, mother, son, daughter, brother, mother-in-law, daughter-in-law.”
Replacements: “parent, child, sibling, parent-in-law, sibling-in-law, child-in-law.”
This is out of control. Can we get an amen?
— Rep. Jim Jordan (@Jim_Jordan) January 4, 2021
Congressional leftists, however, cheered the new rules as “visionary.”
End of Nov, the Progressive Caucus decided on a set of progressive rules reform priorities: Paygo reform and MTR reform ranked high on that list.
So grateful to Chairman @RepMcGovern for helping us secure these reforms and setting the stage for us to push for bolder agenda. https://t.co/nKeUzHI06P
— Ilhan Omar (@IlhanMN) January 1, 2021
House members will vote on the rules Monday after the 117th Congress is sworn in.
