The Australian Senate passed a motion this week banning the use of “distorted” gender-neutral language such as “chest-feeding” and “lactating parent.”
The motion, which Greens Senator Janet Rice described as “sh-t,” “bigoted,” and “disgusting,” was introduced by One Nation Senator Malcolm Roberts and passed 33 to 31.
One Nation’s motion called on the Federal Government to reject the use of “distorted language” such as gestational/non-gestational parent, chest-feeding, human milk, lactating parent, menstruators, and birthing/non-birthing parent.
The Government was also called to ensure all federal government and federal government-funded agencies do not include these terms in their material, including legislation, websites, employee documentation, and training materials.
One Nation Leader Pauline Hanson told Sky News host Rowan Dean that she’s “fed up” with the changing language around gender.
“It’s confusing children,” she said. “It’s confusing people. As I said in my speech about marriage equality, what we will see will happen afterward is that they will try to take the meaning of mum and dad and grandma and grandad because you’re actually upsetting those families that have two mums or two dads, and of course, we can’t have that.
“It was about drawing the line in the sand,” Senator Hanson added.
Yesterday the Senate passed my motion criticising the use of distorted gender language. It also calls on the government to ensure all federal government agencies are banned from using biologically distorted and gender neutral language. pic.twitter.com/Fjsm0CKvTd
— Malcolm Roberts 🇦🇺 (@MRobertsQLD) March 16, 2021
The motion states:
Senator Roberts: To move–That the Senate–
notes that:
(i) Our fundamental biology and relationships are represented through the following descriptors – mother, father, son, daughter, brother, sister, boy, girl, grandmother, grandfather, aunt, uncle, female, male, man, woman, lady, gentleman, Mr, Mrs, Ms, sir, madam, dad, mum, husband, wife,
(ii) Broad scale genuine inclusion cannot be achieved through distortions of biological and relational descriptors,
(iii) an individual’s right to choose their descriptors and pronouns for personal use must not dehumanise the human race and undermine gender,
(iv) Dr Lyons from Logan (Queensland) reports incidences of young children feeling stressed and panicked about whether it is okay to use the words boy and girls, and
(v) pushing gender-neutral language is no replacement for appropriate emotional and psychological support for children while growing up; and
calls on the Federal Government to:
(i) reject the use of distorted language such as gestational/non-gestational parent, chest-feeding, human milk, lactating parent, menstruators, birthing/non-birthing parent, and
(ii) ensure all federal government and federal government funded agencies d not include these terms in the material, including legislation, website, employee documentation and training materials.
