Vermont Department of Health urges public to avoid gendered words like 'son' or 'daughter'
As the back-to-school school season kicks off, the Vermont Department of Health is encouraging school employees and others to refrain from referring to children as a "son" or "daughter" and instead embrace gender-neutral terminology.
In a Facebook post Wednesday, the department declared, "The language we use matters."
"When talking about family, it's important to use terms that cover the many versions of what family can look like," the department stated. A picture accompanying the Facebook post featured a few examples of what constituted "inclusive language for families."
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The agency advised the use of the terms "child" or "kid" to refer to someone's offspring as opposed to "son" or "daughter."
"This is gender-neutral and can describe a child who may not be someone's legal son or daughter," the Facebook post reads.
The guide also urged parents to "Say 'family members' rather than 'household members'" because "Not all families live in the same home — think divorced or incarcerated parents, stepsiblings, etc."
When advising against the use of the term "extended family" in favor of "family," the Vermont Department of Health noted that "Often grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins are important parts of a core family unit."
A comment posted by the Vermont Department of Health in response to its own Facebook post stressed that "This post was intended to encourage using inclusive language when you don't know someone's family situation."
"This is especially important in settings like classrooms, afterschool programs and sports teams," the post states. "Using language that includes everyone helps children feel seen, respected, and valued no matter how their families are structured."
Wednesday's Facebook post from the Vermont Department of Health is not the first time the state has made news for efforts to eliminate so-called "gendered" language.
Last year, the state's Essex Westford School District made national headlines after one of its schools sent a letter home to parents of fifth-grade students outlining how lessons about "puberty and the human reproductive systems" would use "gender inclusive language" in order to comply with the district's "equity policy."
The letter identified the use of the phrase "person who produces sperm" as opposed to "boy, male, and assigned male at birth" and calling a girl a "person who produces eggs" as examples of terminology students would be taught during the unit.
Adherence to LGBT ideology is a common theme at the state and local level in Vermont. The latest edition of the Vermont Department of Health's Health Equity Newsletter, published this month, includes tips for teachers on how they can advance "Equity in the Classroom." The newsletter stated that "Supporting the needs, backgrounds, and abilities of all students is a complex task."
"Challenging our instinct or bias to prioritize the needs of white, straight, cisgender, and non-disabled and neurotypical students is the first step," the newsletter asserted. "This will reduce barriers for BIPOC and LGBTQIA+ students as well as those with physical and neurological disabilities."
The state defines "health equity" as "when all people have a fair and just opportunity to be healthy, especially those who have experienced socioeconomic disadvantage, historical injustice, and other avoidable systemic inequalities that are often associated with social categories of race, gender, ethnicity, social position, sexual orientation and disability."
The Vermont Department of Health also maintains that "Vermonters who identify as white and heterosexual, who are non-disabled, live in urban or suburban areas, or are middle or upper class generally have better health compared to other Vermonters." It identifies "health equity" as a "cornerstone of our State Health Assessment and State Health Improvement Plan."
Ryan Foley is a reporter for The Christian Post. He can be reached at: ryan.foley@christianpost.com
