Bill Against Inclusive Language Approved in Brazil

The Porto Alegre City Council certified a bill that prohibits the use of inclusive language, which represents non-binary people, in municipal schools, and other government bodies of that Brazilian city.

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The approval of this law has been based by the drafters of the project on the conception that this language "is a pseudo-inclusion that they are trying to make, with non-existent nouns, with false pronouns, with bizarre rules that do not concern the Portuguese language."

Councilwoman and reserve lieutenant colonel, Major Nádia Rodríguez Silveira, said that the project "would not even have to exist if there were no groups that simply want to do away with the Portuguese language."

However, councilwoman Bruna Rodriguez said that "the bill signed by the government completely ignores the countless debates we have raised about tolerance and against prejudice. We are the country that kills the most LGBTQIA+ people." In this connection, she added that addressing all issues that guide inclusion with serenity and listening to those affected by these proposals is essential.

Polemics In Porto Alegre, city councilors approved a law that prohibits the use of inclusive language inside schools in the municipality. What is your opinion? Are you for or against this language in the capital's schools?

One of the authors of the norm, councilwoman Fernanda Barth said that what is being demanded is that "teachers have to stick to teaching the standard norm," which denies recognition to other people who consider that language is an ideology and therefore perpetuates the exclusion of what is different, local platforms stated.

The bill's approval was also criticized by the Mothers and Fathers for Democracy Association, which indicated in a statement that Brazil had 175 victims of transphobia in 2020 alone. Such data reflects the hatred towards trans and non-binary people; and has been condemned by organizations and platforms that defend the rights of people, including trans women and men, as well as those who consider themselves neither a man nor a woman in their gender identity. 

"They don't care. They don't want gender inclusion. They don't want education, and they don't even care about the lack of teachers and staff in schools. They want people who obey and submit to the rotten, patriarchal system that steals our colorfulness and our chance to be more," the entity said in its statement.