Happy You Day... the gender-free Mother’s Day cards
A SUPERMARKET has been selling Mother’s Day cards that do not specify a gender in a bid to make the celebration more inclusive.
As part of its Mother’s Day range, the upmarket British chain Waitrose offered cards bearing the greeting ‘Happy You Day’. It said the card had been designed to allow people ‘to thank anybody they choose to’ and the move was about ‘broadening out who the cards can go to’.
The supermarket has been joined by stationery company Scribbler, whose Mother’s Day offerings include a ‘Two mums are betguage ter than one’ card for same-sex couples.
Another on offer at the greetings-card retailer said: ‘Dad, thanks for being the most amazing mum.’ The move comes after calls from activists to rename the celebration – with suggestions for a replacement including Guardian’s Day and Carer’s Day. Transgender campaigner Karen Pollock said the traditional name, Mothering Sunday, was more inclusive as anyone could be considered as ‘mothering’. Some schools have also chosen gender-neutral names for Mother’s Day.
Heltwate School in Peterborough said that pupils would celebrate Special Person’s Day alongside Mother’s Day to thank ‘all those special people in our lives’.
And last year Consett Junior School in Co. Durham also renamed the event Special Person’s Day. Recent bids to make language less gender-specific include Canada’s move to rewrite its national anthem. Last month, its senate voted to amend the English-lan- version of O Canada to remove a reference to ‘sons’. In December, UK scout leaders were told not to call youngsters ‘boys’ and ‘girls’ to avoid upsetting transgender children. New guidance from the UK Scout Association warned leaders to use ‘gender-neutral’ language. Transgender children who are male on their birth cert but identify as female may soon be allowed join the Irish Girl Guides after a decision last year.