The RAE and the LGBT community in its new edition

This Thursday, in Madrid the Real Academia Española (Royal Spanish Academy) will release the 23^rd edition of its dictionary. Among the changes for this edition, one about which we are proudest is that the word marriage now finally includes a definition for homosexual marriage: “in certain legislations, the union of two people of the same sex, arranged via certain rites or legal formalities, to establish and maintain a union of lives and interests”.

In addition, this new edition promotes changes to remove the negative connotations of some words that threaten and harm the LGBT community. An example of this is the disappearance of ‘maricón’ (fag/puff) as one the definitions of sodomite, as well as ‘safismo’ (sapphism) as a synonym for lesbianism.

Despite these positive changes, there are still many words and expressions that have not been included, such as LGBT, transgender, cruising, gay scene, to come out of the closet, outing, bullying, civil union, cohabitation, intersex, queer and drag queen.

These changes are among the first steps towards removing homophobic and sexist definitions that affect the LGBT community and adapt the definitions of some words to reflect what they really mean. It shows the increasing progress of this group both in terms of numbers and its importance in society.

Source: Fundéu BBVA.