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Bavaria bans use of ‘gender-sensitive’ language – JURIST

The German state of Bavaria banned Tuesday the use of “gender-sensitive” language in schools and universities. Ministers expressed that while they want to uphold gender equality in language, the use of symbols within words could impact comprehensibility and have therefore banned the practice.The ban was passed by the Council of Ministers in Bavaria to prevent the use of this language in schools, classrooms and university lectures. The regulation amended the General Rules of Procedure for the Authorities for the Free State of Bavaria to prevent the use of multi-gender spellings that use symbols within the word to indicate this. In more recent years, higher education establishments in Germany have seen an increased use of these spellings, which alter the traditionally masculine forms of certain words to make them more gender-sensitive, such as by adding an asterisk, colon, underscore, or other special character within the word.The new regulations were supported by Minister-President of Bavaria Markus Soder, who posted about the ban on X (formerly Twitter). Soder previously showed support for such a ban, releasing a statement in 2021 in which he said that while “equality is important,” “in Bavaria there will be no gender asterisks,” as there must not be “excessive requirements” in language.In December 2023, the Council for German Orthography, which release rules and regulations regarding German spelling and grammar, released a statement condemning the use of gender-sensitive spellings and dissuading schools and universities from using them. Interior Minister Joachim Herrmann, who introduced the ban in Bavaria, emphasised that while they are guided by this institution, the gender-sensitive language ban in Bavaria will be upheld regardless of any decisions by the Council for German Orthography.