The population supports the urban language rule. Zurich is permitted to use the inclusion symbol in official documents.
Gender-sensitive language is important to the population of Zürich. She rejected the “Goodbye Gender Star” initiative – with a negative vote of 57 percent. The initiative wanted the city to no longer use the gender star in its official documents.
Popular initiative “Bye gender star!”
City of Zurich: Popular initiative “Say hello star gender!”
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Voices
The background is a change in the language regulations two years ago. The city of Zurich replaced the Binnen-I with gender-neutral words such as “employees” or the gender star (employee) (for example: employees). These changes should appeal to all genders.
A non-partisan committee made up of mostly middle-class politicians fought against this language regulation, which is why the voters of the city of Zurich voted on the future of the Gender Star.
Left-wing circles are doing better in middle-class areas
the decision was pretty clear. It was clear that traditionally left-wing areas such as Wiedikon or constituency 4+5 rejected the initiative, with a vote of 66 or 72 percent.
More middle-class areas were in favor of banning sex stars, but only
For the FDP of the city of Zurich, which supported the initiative, this can be seen as a respectable success. The Zurich FDP party president Përparim Avdili said that people on the left were also bothered by the gender star. This was communicated.
SVP cantonal councilor Susanne Brunner, the face of the Bye Gender Star initiative, sees it the same way. She regrets the result of the vote, but she also says that 43 percent of the voting population did not represent the opinion of the city council. «The city council should consider the result. Maybe he will come up with another solution.”
Language dictation or inclusion? The gender star aroused emotions
There was an emotional voting battle before the vote. Opponents of the gender star spoke of language being introduced by the city. Not only are texts complex and illegible, they also expand political positions.
For proponents of the gender star, inclusion was the main argument. In official texts, all genders – women, men and non-binary people – must be treated linguistically equally.