Voters in Muskegon and Grand Haven are moving away from gender bias pronoun use in their city charters.
Muskegon’s city charter was drafted in 1869, while City of Grand Haven’s charter was written in 1959. Like many cities of the time, most if not all pronouns specified the male gender, as roles in local government were largely held by men.
After the November elections, Grand Haven will move to pronouns “they, "them” and “theirs.” Muskegon will replace gender-specific pronouns with titles or positions to, “make it clear the charter applies equally to all persons regardless of gender.”
The measure past with just over 58% of voter favor in both cities.
