Nosso compromisso de adotar uma linguagem mais inclusiva

GAGGA has always been deeply committed to promoting and recognizing the work of communities that are most invisible and historically excluded. Recently, the GAGGA program committee has been reflecting on the visibility of this commitment in our communications and in the terms we choose to describe the groups we support.

In fact, the language we use is of the utmost importance; The words we choose in our communications can often exclude people. During GAGGA’s first five years of operation, we referred to the communities we supported as “women and girls” and sometimes “women and girls in all their diversity.” However, a big question has arisen: Are we making the groups we work with, and especially non-binary gender identities, invisible by using these umbrella terms?

That’s why we decided to adjust our language to recognize and respect the diversity of gender identities that are not considered by the gender binary standard. We will explicitly designate girls, women and trans, intersex and non-binary people in our communications, as well as rural, indigenous, black and Afro-descendant communities and young people in general – whether in our reports or during our events. By indicating the identities of our partnerships and making them visible, we hope that they feel included and represented in the work and collective vision of GAGGA. We also recognize that this decision creates greater awareness among funders about the breadth of activist communities in need of support.

Do you have any tips or learnings to share regarding how we can make our language even more inclusive? We welcome! As this is a knowledge-building process for all of us, we invite you to share any thoughts or experiences of this nature as we continue to value the work of groups and all gender identities.