Tulsi Gabbard Criticizes Democrats for Removing Gendered Language from House Rules

Former Democratic presidential candidate Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) listens to a question during a campaign stop in Londonderry, N.H., on Oct. 1, 2019. Charles Krupa/AP Photo

Former Rep. Tulsi Gabbard (D-Hawaii) criticized her party’s recent decision to change the House Rules so the language in written and formal proceedings is gender-neutral, calling the change hypocritical.

Gabbard told Fox News she believes the new change in the House rules does not support women but instead shows how out of touch lawmakers are with common Americans.

“It absolutely does the very opposite of that and it’s the height of hypocrisy,” she said.

“For people who claim to be the champions of rights for women to deny the very biological existence of women and this recent rule change that the House just voted and passed on today that you were talking about removing references to, mothers and fathers, brothers and sisters, sons and daughters from congressional rules and administration, it’s mind-blowing because it shows just how out of touch [Congress is] with reality and the struggles of everyday Americans,” Gabbard continued.

The House Rules Committee’s press statement on the new rule reads, “[The House] will honor all gender identities by changing pronouns and familial relationships in the House rules to be gender-neutral.”

Gabbard also said Democrat lawmakers should be prioritizing getting the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus vaccine to the elderly population, not changing House rules’ language.

“Their first act is as this new Congress could have been to make sure that elderly Americans are able to get the COVID vaccine now alongside frontline health care workers elderly Americans who have the highest mortality rates from this virus, but instead of doing something that could actually help save people’s lives, they’re choosing instead to say well you can’t say mother or father in any of this congressional language and it’s astounding,” Gabbard added.

House Rules Committee Chairman, Jim McGovern (D-Mass.) said in a speech on the House floor on Jan. 4 that the change in House language honors all gender identities, “by changing pronouns in the House rules so they are gender-neutral.”

“We made this change for the sake of inclusion, not exclusion,“ he added. ”But then I heard the distinguished Minority Leader say that we are canceling Mother’s Day. The House rules are powerful, but they aren’t that powerful!”

McGovern said it is not true that members are not allowed to say father, mother, son, or daughter. Adding, “That’s just not how this works! And by the way, our Founding Fathers are still our Founding Fathers.”

Gabbard, a former member of the armed forces and representative of Hawaii since 2013, in her last legislative action before retiring from Congress, recently created legislation that would prevent athletes who are biological men from competing in women’s sports.

“There are people who are trying to undermine the very place (of women) by denying my existence, denying the existence of biological women,“ she said. ”It defies common sense. It defies basic established science. It just doesn’t make any sense.”