Tuesday, April 1, 2025
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DC Considers Making Language of Legislation Gender-Neutral

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The D.C. Council will discuss a new bill that stipulates changing the language of the D.C. Code into a gender-neutral one.

The bill was introduced by At-large Councilmember David Grosso, who says the old laws of the city are outdated in terms of the way they view genders and they need to be modernized based on contemporary values.

“Language matters, language holds power, and the language of our laws is especially important,” Grosso said in his introduction statement for the bill on Tuesday.

“Currently, our older laws show outdated thinking about gender, with a default to masculine pronouns or to masculinized forms of nouns. Other laws fail to embody the gender diversity of our community, instead using binary language. Our values in the District of Columbia have evolved and the language of our laws should too.”

According to Grosso, the bill titled “Gendered Terms Modernization Amendment Act of 2020” aims at changing the language used in laws in a way that male is no longer the default and making them reflect “our values, including gender equity and inclusivity.”

The 43-page bill would replace the words such as “he,” “him,” and “his” in the D.C. Code with “their,” “theirs,” “they” or “the individual.” In addition, the words “individual” or “human” would be used instead of “woman” and “man.”

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