City of Zurich voters decide on the gender star
Published: Sunday, Oct 27th 2024, 10:40
Volver a Live Feed
The controversial gender star will be the subject of a vote in the city of Zurich on November 24. Voters will decide on the "Bye bye gender star!" initiative. This initiative wants to ban the city administration from using the asterisk.
The authorities should use clear, understandable and legible language and refrain from using "special characters within individual words", demands the popular initiative of the civic committee.
As the title of the initiative shows, it is primarily about the gender star, i.e. the spelling "Zürcher*innen", which is also intended to integrate non-binary people.
Since July 1, 2022, the municipal regulations have prescribed spellings with special characters. Since then, the municipal police have been looking for "witnesses" and swearing in "employees". However, a neutral formulation such as "students" or "tenants" is also permitted.
SVP proposal was not gender-neutral
The origin of the initiative lies in a dispute between former SVP municipal councillor and current cantonal councillor Susanne Brunner and the municipal council office. In 2019, the council rejected a proposal by Brunner because it was not formulated in a gender-appropriate way. Brunner had only used the masculine form.
The gender star was also not allowed at the time, but Brunner discovered the language issue for himself and has been managing it ever since. The initiative committee sees the special characters as a "political instrument" of the city authorities. The language is also becoming cumbersome and formulations such as "Bäuer*in" are grammatically incorrect because there are no "Bäuer".
City council wants to continue using asterisks
The City Council states that by deliberately allowing the gender star, the city administration "recognizes and respects non-binary and trans people". The City Council is committed to dealing with social diversity in an appreciative and respectful manner.
The left-wing parties have a similar view. The Greens, for example, consider the initiative to be exclusionary and extreme. The gender star is in keeping with the open and inclusive city of Zurich. In addition to the SVP, the FDP and the Center/EPP also supported the initiative in the municipal council. The GLP, SP, AL and Greens rejected it, as did the city council.
©Keystone/SDA
Spanish 
English 
German 
French 
Arabic