NASHUA – Some members of the Board of Aldermen are seeking to become more inclusive when referring to one another, lobbying for the use of gender-neutral titles.

Alderman-at-Large Ben Clemons is bringing this legislation forward, Ordinance 20-005, aiming to stand with the LGBTQ community. Nashua is a welcoming city, and recently began hosting an annual pride festival in 2018.

Earlier this week, members of the Personnel/Administrative Affairs Committee took up the matter and passed it through committee with a slight amendment and some opposition.

Alderman June Caron did not support the ordinance, and has concerns that using these different titles could get convoluted.

“I understand what you’re trying to do, but I think that this could get very crazy, because somebody else would come in and want something else, and something else,” Caron said. “I think that when someone’s elected and they would like to be addressed as Alderperson then we should honor that and try to be respectful of people’s feelings and need for their particular title, but to have this, I’m not sure it’s a great thing, and I respect everyone, but I won’t vote for this.”

The reason Clemons brought the issue forward is because he was trying to see if the city could have a more gender-neutral name for the Board of Aldermen.

Clemons said he looked into whether or not there could be a change made to the city charter to become a city council, which he learned from the city’s corporate counsel that would be something that requires the New Hampshire legislature to change their wording in the state statute.

“As far as not being able to do this without the Legislature, I don’t disagree with that, but I don’t think it would be a difficult thing,” Alderman Ernest Jette said.

This would entail changing the charter to change it from board of aldermen to a city council. Jette said officials would just have to write it up, and believes the Legislature would adopt it without any problem. Jette also believes if Nashua did become a city council, officials would avoid all these problems, because members would all be councilors, with no gender discrimination. Clemons said he has no objection to this idea, and said this was his intent in the first place.

“I think in the meantime, this is the best that we can do, and I think we should do that and then work with our legislators to do exactly what you said, Alderman Jette,” Clemons said.

Since the city is unable to do that right now, he put more thought into this and did some research to see if there was something the city could do. This legislation he is bringing forward attempts to allow each aldermen individually to choose for themselves how they want to identify.

“Yes, we would remain the Board of Aldermen, however, am individual alderman would be able to choose whether or not they wanted to be referred to officially as alderman, alderwoman or alderperson,” Clemons said. “I think it strikes a balance where we need to, in my opinion, stand with the LGBTQ community, and while the state doesn’t allow us to right now fully embrace that in a way that would be more practical, we can do this by amending or actually adding to our ordinances this legislation, which simply allows each elected alderman to make the choice of how they want to be addressed.”

While the legislation simply allows an individual to choose their title, others are fine with the way titles are currently referred to as. Alderman Richard Dowd believes if something is not broken, don’t fix it.

The idea that leaving titles as they are because it is tradition frustrated Alderwoman-at-Large Shoshanna Kelly, and said she believes saying tradition is the reason not to make this change is the coward’s way out. She believes people should be allowed to choose what they want, and that if these officials’ titles were Alderwoman by default, it would be a very different conversation. She later apologized for the coward’s way out comment, citing her passion for the issue.

“I think what it says, even though maybe it’s not broken in some people’s opinion, is it says that we’re open to anyone who wants to serve, whether you feel you identify as a woman, if you identify as a man, if you identify anywhere in-between, you can be on this board – and I think that is something that we as a welcoming city and a city that is very diverse should be putting out there,” Kelly said.

Clemons said all that this legislation does is makes sure officials are putting in an ordinance that protects people’s ability to identify the way they feel is appropriate. The original ordinance that went before the committee read, “Members of the Board of Aldermen may choose to be referred to as Alderman, Alderwoman, or Alderperson. Whenever possible, members of the Board of Aldermen will be known collectively as Alderpersons.”

However, an amendment was made to strike the last sentence of the ordinance, and that amended version is what made its way through committee.

Adam Urquhart may be contacted at 594-1206, or at aurquhart@nashuatelegraph.com.