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# Stafford council votes in favour of gender-inclusive constitution
- URL: https://www.scenemag.co.uk/stafford-council-votes-in-favour-of-gender-inclusive-constitution/
- Published: 2021-05-04T08:09:47.000Z
- Updated: 2021-05-04T08:09:47.000Z
- Description: Stafford councillors have voted to replace male pronouns in the town’s constitution with gender-neutral terms.
- Author: Rachel Badham
- Tags: News, Politics, Queer Corner, Bournemouth, LGBTQ, Non-binary, Stafford, Transgender

![](https://www.gscene.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/stafford-borough-council-600-400.jpg)

**Stafford Borough** councillors have voted to replace male-dominated pronouns in the town’s constitution with gender-neutral terms such as they/them so as to be more inclusive of women and gender diverse council members. According to the *[Stoke Sentinel](https://www.stokesentinel.co.uk/news/stoke-on-trent-news/councils-male-dominated-language-replaced-5353981?ref=scenemag.co.uk),* councillor **Marnie Phillips** put forward the notion of adopting gender-neutral pronouns, saying: *“As an LGBTQ+ ally, I am conscious that our constitution should be representative of all members of the community and that includes non-binary* \[people\]*.”*

Phillips continued: *“To ensure that council members of the future from Stafford borough’s LGBTQ+ community are comfortable with the terminology that’s used, I would like to propose replacing those references of he/she, him/her and his/her with they, their and them.”* The notion was successful and now any references to ‘he/him’ in the constitution will be altered to gender-neutral pronouns.

![](https://www.gscene.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/pronouns-600-.jpg)

**Bournemouth** council also proposed similar amendments in [March](https://www.scenemag.co.uk/bournemouth-council-considering-dropping-gendered-terms/), with a notion to drop gendered terms from communications, such as chairman, and to use gender-neutral language where a person’s gender-identity is *“not relevant or not known”.* Councillor **LJ Evans** argued gendered terms may ‘reinforce stereotypes’ and deemed them *“unnecessary”.*