'I'm of Puerto Rican descent and I find it offensive': Democrats seek to ban government use of 'Latinx' in Connecticut

Five Democratic state lawmakers are pushing a measure to bar the Connecticut government from using the controversial term "Latinx" in official communications and forms.

The measure would "prohibit any state agency, or state employee on behalf of a state agency, from using the term 'Latinx' on any official communications or forms of the state agency," according to the text.

Democratic state Rep. Geraldo Reyes Jr. has described "Latinx" as a "woke" term, according to the Associated Press. "I'm of Puerto Rican descent and I find it offensive."

After being sworn in last month, Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R) signed an executive order to remove the term anywhere it appears in state documents and replace it with Hispanic, Latino, or Latina. "One can no more easily remove gender from Spanish and other romance languages than one can remove vowels and verbs from English," the order stated.

CT Insider reported that Reyes said he thought that Sanders had "other motivations" for prohibiting the term.

"This has been offensive and derogatory to all Puerto Ricans, and it's something that hasn't sat well with a lot of people here for a while," Reyes noted, according to CT Insider. "When I found out that Arkansas Gov. [Sanders] banned it on her first day in the office, I saw that as an opportunity for me to do the same thing."

In December 2021, U.S. Rep. Ruben Gallego of Arizona (D) criticized the use of the term.

"To be clear my office is not allowed to use 'Latinx' in official communications. When Latino politicos use the term it is largely to appease white rich progressives who think that is the term we use. It is a vicious circle of confirmation bias," Gallego tweeted.

"Look y'all. Hispanic, Latin American are gender neutral. So we have already gender neutral options to describe the Latino community. Adding an x and creating a new word comes off as performative," he added. "It will not lose you an election but if your staff and consultants use Latinx in your mass communication it likely means they don't understand the Latino community and is indicative of deeper problems," Gallego tweeted.

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