Evers’s gender language proposal sparks backlash

Despite the fact that it had been proposed before, Gov. Tony Evers’s proposed budget language, in which he seeks to wipe out terms like “mother” and “father” in certain sections of state law, drew local and national attention last week, drawing in everybody from Northwoods lawmakers to Elon Musk.

Specifically, in certain parts of the budget related to artificial insemination, Evers would replace the term “wife” and “mother” with “inseminated person,” and the budget bill would likewise make other references to spouses “gender-neutral,” in the words of the Legislative Fiscal Bureau (LFB), as well as switch out some references from “biological parent” to “natural parent.”

“In addition to making statutory references to spouses gender-neutral, the bill specifies ways in which married couples of the same sex may be the legal parents of a child and, with some exceptions, makes current references in the statutes to ‘mother’ and ‘father,’ and related terms, gender-neutral,” an analysis of the budget bill by the LFB states.

According to the analysis, the bill recognizes same-sex marriage by making references in the statutes to spouses gender-neutral with the intent of harmonizing state statutes with the holding of the U.S. Supreme Court in Obergefell v. Hodges, which recognizes that same-sex couples have a fundamental constitutional right to marriage. 

“The bill also recognizes legal parentage for same-sex couples under certain circumstances and adopts gender-neutral parentage terminology,” the LFB analysis adds. “The bill provides that marriage may be contracted between persons of the same sex and confers the same rights and responsibilities on married persons of the same sex that married persons of different sexes have under current law.”

Most, if not all, of the proposed language changes appeared in Evers’s 2023-25 budget, including replacing “wife” and “mother” with “inseminated person,” though legislative Republicans nixed them. This year, however, with a new political climate sweeping the nation, the language changes set off a firestorm that went viral nationally.

Among others, Musk posted on X: “Hi Mom, I mean ‘inseminated person.’ This is crazy!!” Former Green Bay Packers quarterback Brett Favre simply posted: “Nonsense.” The View co-host Alyssa Farah Griffin posted on X: “As a woman currently going through IVF I can think of countless ways I’d rather be referred to than ‘inseminated person.’”

Former elite swimmer Riley Gaines, who is an activist urging the ban of biological men from women’s sports, posted on X: “The thought of being labeled as ‘inseminated’ or ‘uninseminated’ by this creep makes my stomach turn ???”

Back home, Assembly speaker Robin Vos (R-Rochester) said the language proposals made Wisconsin a “national embarrassment,” while state Rep. Amanda Nedweski (R-Pleasant Prairie) said the proposed changes were offensive.

“As a proud mother of two, it is absolutely insulting that the governor, in his 2025-27 budget bill, would reduce me and millions of other mothers across Wisconsin to ‘inseminated persons,’” Nedweski said. “It is not only deeply offensive, but it is an outright attack on the very essence of motherhood. It is unconscionable that the governor has the audacity to take the most beautiful, life-giving act a woman can perform — bringing children into this world — and turn it into nothing more than gender-neutral, virtue-signaling jargon to appease his far-left base.”

Calling all science tutors

Observing that Evers is a former science teacher, Nedweski said it appeared that he needed a refresher on basic biology. 

“Last I checked, only one gender is capable of giving birth — women,” she said. “Anyone who says otherwise is denying science.”

All totaled, Nedweski said, the budget proposal strikes the word “mother” and replaces it with gender-neutral terminology on at least 30 occasions and replaces the word “father” over 120 times throughout the 1,917-page document.

“Gov. Evers proudly proclaimed his tax-and-spend budget to be ‘the most pro-kid budget in state history,’” she said. “However no budget can be truly pro-kid while erasing mothers and fathers from the equation. Contrary to what Evers and his liberal allies on the fringes of the Democrat Party believe, our kids are not wards of the state. They belong to their parents. No amount of statutory language changes will ever change that fact.”

Back home, state Senate president Mary Felzkowski (R-Tomahawk) said it was disgusting to see the Evers administration’s attempt to erase mothers and fathers.

“It is becoming clear the governor not only wants the government to raise children, as we learned in the State of the State address, but that he wants to erase the concept of ‘mom and dad’ altogether,” Felzkowski said. “The continued attempts by the left to erase women, the institution of marriage, and the family unit are just more proof of how out of touch the Democrats are with the majority of Americans.”

Northwoods U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany (R-Wisconsin-7) also weighed in on X: “Gov. Tony Evers is trying to change state law to replace the term ‘mother’ with ‘inseminated person.’ He is attempting to sneak it into a thousand-page budget bill. This isn’t just crazy  —  it’s an insult to women who give birth and raise children.”

For his part, speaking in Wausau to reporters, Evers defended the language changes, saying they were necessary to assure legal protections for same-sex couples. 

“What we want is legal certainty that moms are able to get the care they need,” Evers said. “That’s it. End of story.”

Evers’s spokeswoman Britt Cudaback also issued a statement to media outlets in which she was quoted as referring to the GOP criticisms as “more lies, disinformation, and conspiracy theories from Republicans, Elon Musk, and right-wing extremists who are trying to politicize providing legal parental rights and certainty under the law for parents using IVF.”

Republicans are not being honest, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported Cudaback as saying.

“Republicans are lying about the governor and budget language that’s identical to a Republican-backed bill, has nothing to do with what parents call themselves or what kids call their parents, does not eliminate ‘mother’ and ‘father’ from state law, and is about ensuring full legal rights for parents under the law,” Cudaback wrote, according to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. “Full stop.”

Richard Moore is the author of “Dark State” and may be reached at richardd3d.substack.com.