Politicians duke it out over the term 'Latinx'

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“Latinx” is a gender-neutral word, and Democrats should not be afraid to use it, says U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

The Daily Mail reports that Ocasio-Cortez said, “Gender is fluid, language is fluid, you don’t have to make drama over it.”

She defended the use of Latinx as more gender-inclusive language, posting about it, “in the spirit of Pride,” as June is Pride Month, but she also mentioned the linguistic importance.

Latinx is becoming a preferred term for some Hispanic citizens, as it does not use the gendered “Latino” and “Latina” forms.

According to a Politico poll of Hispanic voters, about 2% of those polled refer to themselves as Latinx.

Said Ocasio-Cortez: “There are some politicians — including Democratic politicians — that rail against the term, ‘Latinx.’ And they’re like, ‘This is so bad. This is so bad for the party like, blah, blah blah.’ And like, it’s almost as though it has not struck some of these folks that another person’s identity is not about your re-election prospects.

“Like, this is not about you.”

Even before the word Latinx was coined, people had attempted to use the “@” symbol at the end of the word — “Latin@” — to get away from gendered usage.

Other politicians said it was more important to use the term employed most by Hispanic people themselves.

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Ritchie Torres, a Democrat, sent off a flurry of tweets 10 days ago on the issue, stating,

“I never said there should be a ban on the term ‘Latinx.’ Quite the opposite.

“I mostly use the term ‘Latino’ whereas Corporate America & government almost exclusively uses the term ‘Latinx.'”

Torres questions why that should be, given polling shows, “most Latino adults have not heard of the term Latinx.”