House bill would rewrite federal laws with gender neutral words

Now that same-sex marriage is legal throughout the country, House lawmakers want the federal code to reflect marriage equality with gender-neutral terms.

Rep. Lois Capps (D-Calif.) introduced a bill on Wednesday that would replace the terms “husband” and “wife” in the U.S. code with “spouse” and “married couple.”

{mosads}“The Amend the Code for Marriage Equality Act recognizes that the words in our laws have meaning and can continue to reflect prejudice and discrimination even when rendered null by our highest courts,” Capps said in a statement. “Our values as a country are reflected in our laws. I authored this bill because it is imperative that our federal code reflect the equality of all marriages.”

The bill, which has 23 co-sponsors, aims to both acknowledge the court’s ruling on marriage equality and correct areas where gender discrimination has been written into federal law.

For example, it is now illegal to threaten the president’s wife under U.S. code, but not the president’s husband. Capps said her bill would update the code to make it illegal to threaten the president’s spouse.