For several years, information has been replicated in Russia that in some countries of the West they banned the use of the words “mother” and “father” in official documents, so as not to offend same -sex parents. Instead, neutral terms “parent 1” and “parent 2” are used. We checked whether this is so.
Representatives of the Russian government periodically declarethat in the West they allegedly banned the use of the terms “father” and “mother”, and the gender-neutral “parent 1” and “parent 2” came to replace them. Such statements were made, for example, a representative of Russia in the UN Boris Chernenko and head of the Council of the Federation of the Russian Federation Valentina Matvienko. President Vladimir Putin too More than once Such He said. On September 30, at the ceremony of signing agreements on the adoption of several Ukrainian territories in the Russian Federation, Putin once again Raised This topic: “Do we want us here in our country, instead of mom and dad, parent number 1, number 2, number 3? Already completely crazy? " The version of the prohibition of the concepts of “mother” and “dad” is also often mentioned in Media, Blogs And social networks. For example, in the media you can find a lot of headlines like: “In Europe, the words“ father ”and“ mother ”will be banned” (“Free press")," There will be neither dad nor mom in Europe "("The arguments of the week")," The Council of Europe offers to send the word "mother" and "dad" to the landfill - "sexism" was found in them ("The voice of Russia"). "Komsomolskaya Truth“She developed this topic even further:“ And most importantly, what to do with the babies who are happy to babble “mom” and “dad”? Apparently, it is necessary to punish the stamping for such "non -normative vocabulary", because they will have to live in political correct Europe. "
In some countries, the term "parent" without a hint of the floor is really used in document management. We examined several examples of the introduction of gender-neutral terms in Western countries, which the Russian media were most widely written about.
USA
In 2011, Russian media Reportedthat, in the form of a statement to the American passport, columns about parents were renamed from “mother” and “father” to “parent 1” and “parent 2”. You can verify the inaccuracy of this information by finding form Applications on site US State Department. In the paragraph “Information about the parents” of the columns, “Mother / Father / Parent” are signed.
Also in 2021 Russian media Wrotethat "in the US Congress is being prepared for the ban on" mother "," father "," son "," daughter "and a number of other related concepts." The fact is that on January 1, 2021, the House of US Representatives adopted amendments to the code of internal rules of the House of Representatives, as is done before each legislative session. One of amendments I touched on paragraph 8 (c) (3) of the Code of conduct, which states the inadmissibility of hiring relatives in paid positions. Further there it is explained who exactly falls under the definition of a relative. Gender-specific formulations such as “father, mother, daughter, son, husband, wife, grandson, granddaughter” were replaced by gender-neutral terms “parent, child, spouse, grandchildren”. This replacement affected only one document in the United States - the regulations of the House of Representatives. However, no one forbade the use of the terms “mother” and “father” in other official documents or in oral speech.

United Kingdom
In the UK, in 2011, a new form was also introduced to receive a passport. In erroneous messages Russian media, in profiles for a passport instead of the count “Mother” and “Father” appeared “Parent 1” and “Parent 2”. In fact, the terms "mother" and "father" on the new Blanc Preserved, and the counts began to be called “Mother or Parent 1” and “Father or Parent 2”. That is, the concepts of “mother” and “father” did not disappear and were not banned either in documents or in public everyday life.
France
In 2019, according to Russian Media, in France, they officially replaced the mention of mom and dad in school units filled with parents. In fact, such a bill was proposed, but after a wave of criticism of it rewritten. Instead of replacing with “parent 1” and “parent 2” to the form to the two columns “mother” and “father” added the third - “another legal representative”.
European Union
In 2011, many media Wrotethat "the Council of Europe offered to cancel" mothers "and" fathers "." It was about these articles about Resolutions 1751adopted by the Council of Europe on the results report Swiss politician Doris Stumpe entitled "The fight against gender stereotypes in the media." The report describes the problem of gender stereotypes, but there are no prohibitions or recommendations there. In the text of the report, the word "parent" is not found at all. Only a few times the word “mother” is mentioned - in the description of the role of women in society and the family, according to the media: “They (women. - approx. Ed.) Are described or perceived as weak, vulnerable and dependent, limited by the role of the mother, wife or sexual object; Women who have achieved success in the professional sphere are portrayed as a careerist endowed with "male" qualities. " In the text Resolutions PACE, adopted following the results of the report, is generally absent from the words “mother”, “father” and “parent”. And in Recommendations It is only written that the Committee of Ministers should be reminded of subordinate bodies about the need to use non -sequence expressions. There are no recommendations for replacing some terms with others there.

And judging by the personal experience of some Russians living in Europe, no prohibitions or displacement of the words “mother” and “dad” come from speech. Russian film producer Sam Klebanov living in Sweden wrote On his twitter is that the only type of documents from which the columns “mother” and “father” were removed are forms for parents in kindergartens and schools. In the graph for the signature there is now written “parent/guardian”, and any of the parents can sign the form. According to Sam Klebanov, this was done not only for the convenience of same -sex families (who are “extremely rare” in Sweden) and also for families where the child is brought up by foster parents or, for example, grandparents.
Russia
It is worth noting that in Russia, a number of documents also use gender-neutral alternatives instead of “mother” and “father”. For example, c statement to issue a passport for a minor child ("legal representative") or in resolution on the processing of personal data of the child ("parent or legal representative"). Users of social networks also post photos of forms from kindergartens And institutions of additional education Russia, where you need to fill out the data on the "parent 1" and "parent 2". Judging by the clarification of several lines below (“Type of kinship: father, mother, grandparents, guardian”), this designation allows you to enter other relatives or guardians raising the child.
Thus, despite the numerous articles of the Russian media about the ban on the terms “mother” and “father” in Western countries, not a single incident we have proven turned out to be true. In some countries, the use of gender-neutral formulations was really introduced, but at the same time the traditional designations of parents were not prohibited in any country-neither in document management or in oral speech.
Image on the cover: Euronews
Not true
Read on the topic:
- Is it true that the practice of the “Swedish family” is widespread in Sweden?
- Meduza. Putin said that while he is the president, “parents No. 1 and No. 2” will not replace “mom” and “dad”. Is there such a truth somewhere?
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