“Language is an inclusive reflection”: NEA teachers union rallies to replace ‘mother’ with ‘birthing parent’

The National Education Association teachers union has put forward a resolution to change “mother” to “birthing parent.” This has been proposed for the purpose of being inclusive to the LGBTQIA+ Community.

The new business term, labeled NBI (New Business Item) 63 was proposed to be voted on by the Representative Assembly on Wednesday. The resolution put forward by the teachers union stated:

"Using this contract language, members need not worry about how a Board of Education/ solicitor defines 'maternity leave,' 'mother,' and/or 'father'; the language is an inclusive reflection of how LGBTQIA+ members build families.”

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Teachers union's proposal of replacing “mothers” with “birthing parents” not possible this year

The nation’s latest teachers union proposed of changing the words “mother,” “father” and “maternity leave” with gender-neutral terms in contracts. However, the resolution did not come up for a vote this week. Speaking about the same, the NEA revealed that NBI 63 was not considered on the floor of NEA’s 2022 Representative Assembly.

Though it was not brought in to vote, its impact incited a lot of movement among the netizens. Getting mostly criticized and bashed on Twitter, one user stated:

“I would like to know from the NEA who they think a birthing parent is .....a MOTHER...they have lost their minds.”

Furthermore, some also felt deprived of the right to be called a mother. One user tweeted:

“I will NOT be reduced to "Birthing Parent." I am quite sure I have earned the title Mother! I have done WAY more than giving birth you clueless bunch. Done with woke bullies.”

Others just felt this was an unnecessary proposal, and stated:

“Instead of teaching our kids essential subjects like math, reading, writing & science, the 3 million members of the NEA bend at the knee & now want to replace “Mother” w/ “Birthing parent”. Unless there has been a very recent evolutionary change, only females have uteruses.”

Essentially, NBIs are proposed by the union’s delegates. Thus, in this case, delegates from the teachers union proposed a change of terms. However, it takes 50 delegate sponsors to bring the NBI to the RA floor for debate and ultimately, to vote.

However, the delegates did pass several other left-of-centre proposals, which also included items on abortion, LGBTQ issues and others relating to conservative education groups. At the same time, the White House refused to comment on the Teachers Association proposal this week. In response, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre stated:

"So, we’re not the NEA and I would refer you to their team about that particular."

Meanwhile, First Lady Jill Biden, a teacher, is also a member of the NEA. Speaking about the same, Karine Jean-Pierre claimed:

"The first lady is a proud member of the NEA. I am not going to speak about an organization’s policy or change of policy."

The NBI produced in the meeting strongly represents the opinions of the teachers union. While the resolution on language and term change was not brought to a vote, many other resolutions were voted on by the Representative assembly, which consisted of 6,000 educators who attended the meeting in Chicago. Furthermore, multiple members joined virtually.