It’s rather dismaying that in an era of change, politicians continue to fight against inclusive language for lesbian and gay citizens in favor of perpetuating discrimination. I refer, of course, to Rep. J. Randy Forbes (R-Va.) who opposes the proposed change by the U.S. Passport Department to use the terms ‘Mother or Parent 1’ and ‘Father or Parent 2’ on applications rather than the exclusionary ‘Mother’ and ‘Father’ terms currently in use.
Forbes is so disturbed by the proposed change that he actually introduced a bill called the “Parental Title Protection Act of 2011” to hammer the nail into the coffin. So to speak. Here’s the relevant section of the proposed bill:
(a) Requirement- Each Federal agency, contractor (or subcontractor at any tier) pursuant to a contract with such agency, or government-sponsored enterprise shall use the words `mother’ and `father’ when describing parents, and not the words `parent 1′ or `parent 2′ (or other similar words), in all official documents issued by the agency, contractor, or enterprise.
I find it frightening that someone is so frightened of the terms ‘Parent 1’ and ‘Parent 2’ that they would actually waste taxpayers money to draft a bill to prevent the terms from being used on government forms.
Read Bill Would Exclude Children of Same-Sex Parents from Government Forms on Change.org and while you’re there sign the petition in protest of the idiotic bill.
Hey, I’m thinking of proposing a bill that would prevent our elected officials from proposing more idiotic bills. Do you think it will fly?
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copyright 2011 Irene C. Olszewski
Connecticut Lesbian and Gay Law 