Penna Dexter

Whenever there’s a new session of Congress, the House of Representatives adopts a new set of rules to govern the way it conducts business. For the 117^th, Congress House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Rules Committee Chairman James McGovern have proposed a rules package they claim “makes the House of Representatives the most inclusive in history.” There’s a section that eliminates all gendered terms. If the rules package is adopted by the full House, only “gender-inclusive language” will be allowed in House rules. So where the terms “father” and “mother” now appear in the House Code of Official Conduct, they would be replaced with “parent;” “husband” and “wife” would be “spouse;” “son” and “daughter” would be “child;” and “brother” and “sister” would be ”sibling.” Then it really gets awkward: “Aunt” and “uncle” must be replaced with “parent’s sibling” and “cousin” must be “sibling’s child.” And for the in-laws, the new terms are “parent-in-law”, “child-in-law” and “sibling-in-law.” “Grandson” and “granddaughter” would be out. “Grandchild” would be used instead. “Stepmother, stepfather, stepson, stepdaughter stepbrother,” and “stepsister” are out. “Stepparent, stepchild,” and “stepsibling” are in. And so on. In Rule X of the House, the word “seaman” appears. It would have to be replaced with “seafarer.” “Chairman” would be replaced with “Chair.” These language requirements are for House rules, not floor speeches or bills. But this hat tip to the far Left’s desire to eliminate every distinction between the sexes is silly and just makes it harder to communicate clearly. Believe me, there will be more of this pronoun and other gender-neutral-policy nonsense. The proposed new rules establish a permanent Office of Diversity and Inclusion. Expect affirmative action and quota requirements for the hiring of House staff. In its “Blueprint for Positive Change,” the Human Rights Campaign laid out a list of 85 recommendations to the Administration to elevate and enact LGBTQ policy demands. It appears that leaders in Congress are already acting on it.