Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers has introduced a budget recommendation for the 2025-2027 fiscal period that includes replacing gendered terms in state law, such as changing “mother” to “inseminated person” and “paternity” to “parentage.”
The proposal also suggests replacing terms like “wife” and “husband” with “spouse,” while “father” and “mother” would be changed to “parent” and “parent who gave birth to the child,” respectively.
The budget recommendation was presented by the Wisconsin Senate’s Joint Committee on Finance last week. The section detailing the proposed language changes was shared on X by Wisconsin radio host Dan O’Donnell, prompting a reaction from many critics, including Utah Senator Mike Lee who responded, “Red flag!”
Evers did not highlight the language changes when introducing the budget proposal, instead focusing on tax relief measures, property tax policies, and infrastructure improvements, according to a report by Fox News.
The proposal comes amid President Donald Trump’s efforts to push back against the adoption of gender-neutral language in government and institutions. Over the past few years, there have been multiple instances of institutions and government agencies adopting terminology changes for gendered terms, such as replacing “breastfeeding” with “chestfeeding” or “birthing person” rather than “mother.”
On his first day in office, Trump signed an executive order titled “Defending Women from Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government.” The order states that it is the official policy of the US government “to recognize two sexes, male and female,” saying they are “not changeable and are grounded in fundamental and incontrovertible reality.” The order also clarified that “sex” is not a synonym for the concept of “gender ideology.”
