For the "surprised it didn't happen sooner" file:
The Massachusetts House of Representatives has given its initial approval to a bill that would require all future legislation be written in language that is gender neutral.
The one-paragraph bill says legislation should contain non-gendered phrases such as "he/she" or "his/her," instead of following past practice and using the masculine pronoun by default.
Since most legislation applies to groups rather than individuals (and any law that doesn't apply to everyone should be suspect) why don't legislators just use the gender-neutral plurals "they," "them" and "theirs"? Is there any clumsier construction in the English language that "he/she"?
