NEA-backed Senate candidates silent on proposal to replace ‘mother’ with ‘birthing parent’

Several Democratic Senate candidates backed by the National Education Association (NEA) are silent on the union’s proposal to change the word “mother” to “birthing parent” in contracts.

The NEA, which represents teachers across the U.S., proposed during its annual meeting to erase the word mother from contracts to be more inclusive to the LGBTQIA+ community. The resolution, called New Business Item (NBI) 63, was ultimately not voted on, though the NEA could consider it at a later date.

Fox News reached out to five Democratic Senate candidates who received funding from NEA and who are in either toss-up races or races that lean Democrat. None of them responded.

Several of the Democrats received $10,000 from the NEA for their campaigns for the November midterm election, including senators Michael Bennet, D-Colo.; Raphael Warnock, R-Ga.; and Cheri Beasely, a former North Carolina Supreme Court judge running against Sen. Rick Scott, R-N.C.

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The NEA contributed $2,000 to the campaigns of Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., and Mark Kelly, D-Ariz. 

As the largest teachers’ union in the U.S., the NEA donates millions to politicians, and the vast majority of its spending goes to Democrats. Of the $895,000 donated this cycle, the NEA has given money to three House Republican campaigns and just $2,000 to one Republican senator — Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska.

The proposal to change references to mothers to “birthing parents” in new contracts came from one of the NEA delegates at its annual meeting this week, where Vice President Kamala Harris was the keynote speaker.

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“Using this contract language, members need not worry about how a board of education/solicitor defines ‘maternity leave,’ ‘mother, and/or ‘father’; the language is an inclusive reflection of how LGBTQIA+ members build families,” the proposed resolution states.

The NEA explained the process in a statement to Fox News Digital. 

“Every year, NEA members submit new business items concerning a wide range of issues,” the statement said. “Some are intimately tied to NEA operations and others reflect policy positions delegates would like the organization and its state-level affiliates to take. NEA is committed to democratic processes and open debate. These values are fundamental not just to NEA’s vision as a union but to our functioning as a multiracial democracy. NBI 63 was not considered by the 2022 NEA RA.”

Numerous political figures have proposed removing gendered language from official documents to avoid misgendering a trans person and to be more inclusive to those who identify as a gender other than their biological sex. 

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi proposed changing House rules to replace words like mother, daughter and uncle with “parent, “child” and “parent’s sibling.”