"Storm in a teacup": gender star debate in the state parliament
Created: 2022-01-19Updated: 2022-01-19, 9:44 p.m
Stefanie Hubig (SPD), Minister of Education of Rhineland-Palatinate.
© Andreas Arnold/dpa/archive image
Asterisk, colon or everything as before?
Late at night, the Rhineland-Palatinate state parliament debated gender-sensitive language on Wednesday.
The AfD MP Martin Louis Schmidt spoke of "nonsense" and "word monsters" with a view to colon phrases in the coalition agreement of the traffic light government.
Education Minister Stefanie Hubig (SPD) reacted coolly:
Mainz - The AfD parliamentary group's demand for a ban on certain spellings in schools is not about spelling, but about social policy.
The AfD's motion entitled "No "gender-equitable language" in schools and in the state parliament administration" was rejected by a large majority.
But the AfD found at least verbal support among the Free Voters.
"Language is a crucial and formative part of our culture," warned her deputy Herbert Drumm, the retired director of studies.
It should therefore not be subjected to the zeitgeist.
With the use of gender-sensitive language, nothing is taken away from anyone, replied the Green MP Pia Schellhammer.
When addressing Schmidt, she added: "You can continue to speak in your generic masculine, then we women are not included." The generic masculine is understood as meaning the gender-neutral use of terms in their masculine form.
CDU MP Marion Schneid spoke of a storm in a teacup.
"It's about conjuring up a problem that isn't one at all." She asked around at primary schools and found that gender-appropriate spelling was not an issue at all.
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In her speech, the lawyer Hubig referred to the judgment of the Federal Constitutional Court of 2017 - according to which the obligation to assign every person to the male or female gender violates the ban on discrimination.
It is therefore necessary to "address people who do not classify themselves as male or female appropriately".
Language, like society, is constantly changing, said the minister.
"That's why we no longer speak Old High German or Middle High German." dpa