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Trump's Forbidden Words: 'Fetus,' 'Transgender' Among Them

CDC releases words that Trump administration has deemed "forbidden."

By Christina St-JeanPublished 6 years ago 3 min read
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From the files of the insanity that is the Trump administration comes news that there are now certain words that are no longer supposed to turn up in any official documentation. Thanks to the Centers for Disease Control in the United States, the public at large can see the words that are deemed so terrible that they can no longer appear in government documents.

According to Daily Beast and other publications, the forbidden words include "fetus," "transgender," "evidence-based," "diversity," "vulnerable," "entitlement," and "science-based."

Um. What?

To an extent, it does not come as a surprise that the Trump administration should determine that these words should be forbidden. After all, this is an administration that argued that climate change was a Chinese invention — an argument tweeted from President Trump himself five years ago.

"The concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive," Trump tweeted in late 2012.

So, it should come as no great shock that words like evidence-based or science-based should make the forbidden words list, given Trump's apparent fairly loose grip on things like truth and reality.

Certainly, the appearance of words like diversity and transgender come as no real surprise either. The Trump administration has done what many have feared it would do — attempt to roll back the progress of civil rights some 50 years or more. With the removal of protections for transgender students and his incredibly tone-deaf statements — such as referring to Senator Elizabeth Warren as "Pocahontas" during a ceremony to honor Navajo code talkers — it's clear that Trump has no clue what diversity should be and that he does not care one iota about transgender individuals. To put it plainly, the placement of the word transgender on the forbidden words list is tantamount to denying that those who are transgender even exist, while diversity's new existence as a "forbidden" word under the Trump administration only serves to highlight Trump's ignorance.

As for entitlement and vulnerable, one reason for the banning of these words could be that Trump has no desire to even acknowledge that there are vulnerable individuals in the United States who might have some sort of entitlement to basic services like health care or housing. That's only a theory, though. What's clear for sure is that Trump seems hell-bent on making America great for those who are rich or have power, and no one else.

While the official who announced the words were banned said she was only relaying the information from the White House administration, the reaction from the CDC was apparently less than welcoming. According to Washington Post, incredulity was the biggest reaction to the announcement.

“It was very much, ‘Are you serious? Are you kidding?’ ” a CDC analyst who requested anonymity said.

My question is are we going to have to replace the term president when referring to President Trump to something that might be more fitting of the grandiosity of his personality - something like Grand Poohbah, or Great Pumpkin? The White House could be no longer referred to as such; instead, why not Trump Central?

The banning of fetus, transgender, evidence-based, science-based, entitlement, diversity and vulnerable does little as far as official paperwork goes. The Washington Post indicates that those who work with the CDC — particularly the scientists — aren't going to take this lightly, and they shouldn't. Blocking these words from official documents and forcing officials to use other language will only serve to promote the use of double-talk and make government documents even more challenging to wade through for the public at large, which might be the overarching intent of the administration.

The biggest issue about these words being "forbidden," though, is that it only further underlines - like we needed further evidence of this — Trump's ignorance and willful intent to deny the people most affected by these terms, such as those who might be part of a vulnerable population who are entitled to services, their rights, and perhaps even their existence. While the banning of these words seems ludicrous on its surface, it could be an ominous signal of further human rights rollbacks in the future of the Trump administration.

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About the Creator

Christina St-Jean

I'm a high school English and French teacher who trains in the martial arts and works towards continuous self-improvement.

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