House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., offered a speech on Wednesday that appeared to violate the spirit of her recent resolution eliminating gendered language from the chamber’s written rules.
“I stand before you as a wife, a mother, a grandmother, a daughter,” she said from the House floor while demanding Trump’s impeachment.
Ealier this month, Pelosi encountered ridicule over the proposal, which directed the 117th Congress to remove those words and others from its rules. There’s nothing in the rules that prohibit members from using gender-specific terms when speaking on the House floor or conducting business.
Instead of wife and daughter, Pelosi’s resolution directed House rules to use “spouse” and “child.”
PELOSI’S NEW HOUSE RULES ARE GENDER-NEUTRAL, CURTAIL GOP’S ABILITY TO FORCE ‘GOTCHA’ VOTES
It read: “Strike ‘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, step sister, half brother, half sister, grandson, or granddaughter’ and insert ‘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.’’’
The resolution received backlash from House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., who called it “stupid.”
Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, D-N.Y., supported the changes.
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“From my standpoint, the gender-neutral language is just consistent with an effort for the House, in the best tradition of the House, to reflect the gorgeous mosaic of the American people in the most sensitive fashion possible,” said Jeffries earlier this month.
“And the House, of course, is designed to be the institution closest to the American people to reflect the hopes, the dreams, the aspirations, the fears, concerns, anxieties, in the words of the framers the passions of the American people.”
Fox News’ Ronn Blitzer and Marisa Schultz contributed to this report.
