Fresh off the Supreme Court ruling on gay marriage, Democrats in California have introduced a bill that would ban the words “husband” and “wife” from being used in federal law because they are “gendered terms” and discriminate against gay people.
The words husband and wife were deleted from California state law last year in order to accommodate same sex marriage.
Under new legislation proposed by over two dozen Democrats, that same rule would be applied federally. The bill, introduced by Rep. Lois Capps, D-Calif, would introduce new “gender-neutral” terms such as “spouse” or “married couple.”
“The Amend the Code for Marriage Equality Act recognizes that the words in our laws have meaning and can continue to reflect prejudice and discrimination even when rendered null by our highest courts,” Capps said. “Our values as a country are reflected in our laws. I authored this bill because it is imperative that our federal code reflect the equality of all marriages.”
Capps said that amending the language used was necessary to reflect “the equality of all marriages” following last month’s Supreme Court ruling on gay marriage that mandated all states to license same sex marriages.
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