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"Penmanship" is now "handwriting" as Washington state removes gender bias in statutes
Reuters ^ | APRIL 22, 2013 | LAURA L. MYERS

Posted on 04/23/2013 3:03:39 AM PDT by rickmichaels

SEATTLE - Washington state’s governor signed into law on Monday the final piece of a six-year effort to rewrite state laws using gender-neutral vocabulary, replacing terms such as “fisherman” and “freshman” with “fisher” and “first-year student.”

Lawmakers have passed a series of bills since 2007 to root out gender bias from Washington statutes, though a 1983 state mandate required that all laws be written in gender-neutral terms unless a specification of gender was intended.

“This was a much larger effort than I had envisioned. Mankind means man and woman,” said Democratic state Senator Jeanne Kohl-Welles of Seattle.

The new gender-neutral references, for example, include “journey-level plumber” instead of “journeyman plumber,” “handwriting” in place of “penmanship,” and “signal operator” for “signalman.”

“There’s no good reason for keeping our legal terms anachronistic and with words that do not respect our current contemporary times,” Kohl-Welles, the 475-page bill’s sponsor, told Reuters.

Several words, however, aren’t easy to replace, said Kyle Thiessen, the state’s code reviser, who heads up the 40-staff Washington Code Reviser’s Office agency.

The state likely won’t change the words “airmen” and “seaman,” for example, because of objections by the state’s Washington Military Department, he said.

Civil engineering terms such as “man hole” and “man lock,” also will not be changed because no common-sense substitutes could easily be found, Thiessen said.

Nearly 3,500 Washington state code sections, out of a total of about 40,000 have been tediously scrubbed of gender bias, although most involve adding pronouns “she” and “her” to augment the existing “he” and “his,” Thiessen said.

The bill passed the Democrat-controlled state House 70-22 on April 9 and unanimously cleared the state Senate on Feb. 8 before being signed by Democratic Governor Jay Inslee.

Washington state is the nation’s fourth to boast of eliminating gender bias from its official lexicon, following in the footsteps of Florida, North Carolina and Illinois, Kohl-Welles said.

Other states that have passed gender-neutral constitutional mandates include California, Hawaii, Maryland, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont and Utah, Kohl-Welles said. At least nine other states are currently considering gender-neutral legislation, she said.

“Words matter,” said Liz Watson, a National Women’s Law Center senior adviser. “This is important in changing hearts and minds.”


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Government; Miscellaneous; US: Washington
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To: rickmichaels

Whoever controls the terms controls the debate.


21 posted on 04/23/2013 4:10:13 AM PDT by tacticalogic ("Oh, bother!" said Pooh, as he chambered his last round.)
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To: rickmichaels

Doesn’t the term “handwriting” discriminate against people without hands?


22 posted on 04/23/2013 4:11:53 AM PDT by reg45 (Barack 0bama: Implementing class warfare by having no class.)
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To: Repent and Believe
Language evolves over time based on usage, utility, and necessity. It should not be forcible change based on stupidity.
23 posted on 04/23/2013 4:12:22 AM PDT by luvbach1 (We are finished.)
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To: teacherwoes
Now the question comes up is what are they going to do with the word “homo” which is Latin for ‘man’?

It's also Greek for "same".

-- a) From the Greek homos meaning same / the same, as in homosexuality (same-sex love), homogenous (uniform). (The opposite is hetero- from the Greek heteros meaning different from);

-- b) From the Latin homo, meaning human / human being (a member of the genus Homo), as in Homo sapiens, hominophobia, homicide.

That's why a lesbian is also a homosexual.

24 posted on 04/23/2013 4:13:26 AM PDT by Graybeard58 (_.. ._. .. _. _._ __ ___ ._. . ___ ..._ ._ ._.. _ .. _. .)
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To: luvbach1

workcraft, brinkscraft, statecraft and craftcraft?


25 posted on 04/23/2013 4:13:35 AM PDT by GeronL (http://asspos.blogspot.com)
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To: rickmichaels

I’m guessing they won’t touch “manslaughter” because if they make it too generic people might think it includes fetuses.


26 posted on 04/23/2013 4:14:37 AM PDT by tacticalogic ("Oh, bother!" said Pooh, as he chambered his last round.)
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To: rickmichaels

Eastern Washington state is quite conservative. The west coast of the state is a la-la land filled with the enlighten elite.


27 posted on 04/23/2013 4:15:11 AM PDT by Senator_Blutarski
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To: rickmichaels
“Words matter,” said Liz Watson, a National Women’s Law Center senior adviser.

Fail.

28 posted on 04/23/2013 4:24:39 AM PDT by Flick Lives (We're going to be just like the old Soviet Union, but with free cell phones!)
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To: rickmichaels
Gender based terminology was eliminated in Newspeak 4, I believe.
29 posted on 04/23/2013 4:25:41 AM PDT by Aevery_Freeman (Demarica: Land of the need, home of the slave!)
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To: rickmichaels
Intetresting that “Kohl-Welles” is also a Klingon term for Targ spittle.
30 posted on 04/23/2013 4:31:01 AM PDT by BigCinBigD (...Was that okay?)
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To: Flick Lives
"Words matter,” said Liz Watson, a National Women’s Law Center senior adviser."

Liz Watson

Double-fail

31 posted on 04/23/2013 4:36:10 AM PDT by BlueLancer ("Oh, man, that's a lot of Indians!" [LTC George A. Custer, 1876, near the Little Bighorn Valley])
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To: rickmichaels

It doesn’t get much dumber than this.


32 posted on 04/23/2013 5:00:41 AM PDT by Venturer
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To: silverleaf
mens and wymyns

I actually heard an Army sergeant address a group of men, "Menses, we..."

I kid thee not.

33 posted on 04/23/2013 5:43:32 AM PDT by OldPossum
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To: rickmichaels

Are they going to change “mailman” to “person person”?


34 posted on 04/23/2013 5:58:57 AM PDT by CPOSharky (zero slogan: Expect less, pay more. (apologies to Target))
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To: rickmichaels

HOW STUPID!


35 posted on 04/23/2013 7:13:40 AM PDT by winkadink (During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act. George Orwell)
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To: GeronL

While Rome burns...


36 posted on 04/23/2013 7:22:02 AM PDT by FatherFig1o155 (Politicians are like diapers; they need to be changed often and for the same reason.)
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To: rickmichaels

At least the dipsticks (that’s polite-speak for different descriptive term) are still teaching cursive, by whatever name ... provided it is cursive, and not merely printing.


37 posted on 04/23/2013 9:01:57 AM PDT by RobinOfKingston (Democrats--the party of Evil. Republicans--the party of Stupid.)
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