Did Pelosi ‘Remove’ Gender-Specific Words From Use in the House of Representatives?

In January 2021, readers asked Snopes to examine claims that U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had orchestrated a move to remove gender-specific terms like “mother” and “father” from use in the U.S. House of Representatives.

On Twitter, the controversial right-wing commentator Dinesh D’Souza said that, under the proposals:

“Suddenly you’re not allowed, in House communications, to refer to fathers or mothers or grandfathers or grandmothers or brothers or sisters, or even stepsons or stepdaughters or father-in-laws [sic] or mother-in-laws [sic]. The whole gendered vocabulary is essentially abolished.”