French publisher succumbs to LGBT pressure and changes family definition

"We made a lot of changes to the definition of the family from the beginning of the 2000s”, Géraldine Moinard, editorial director of Le Robert publication house, explained, as reported by Famille Chretienne on Friday. She promised that the online edition of the dictionary would be updated as soon as possible and that the changes would be included in the paper edition later on as well.

Until now, the Little Robert dictionary of 2023 defined the concept of family as “Related persons living under the same roof, and especially, the father, the mother and the children.” However, two LGBT associations found this definition discriminatory and started an action to change it.

The definition is homophobic within the meaning of the law, Alexandre Urwicz, president of the Association for the Defense of Homoparental Families (ADFH), said last week, as reported by Evangeliques.info. ADFH was one of the organisations that started the discussion on the term “family”. “People are excluded from a definition based on gender or sexual orientation”, Urwicz explained.

The ADFH proposed to change the definition of family to “one parent or two, with their children”. According to the organisation, this would include single-parent and gay-parent families.

Reality

Not everyone is happy with the changes. The activists want to disconnect words from their meaning of reality, Ludovine de la Rochère, president of the family organisation Manif pour tous, says, as reported by Famille Chretienne. She sees the change as another attempt at undermining the traditional family and says that the publishing house could just have ignored the tweet.

According to Famille Chretienne, changes in dictionaries have a strong impact over time. “Inclusive writing is now used in the vast majority of administrations, in particular universities use it, even though the French Academy forbids it”, the website reads.