# Howard County Question A: Gender Neutrality (charter amendment)

**In one sentence:** This question decides whether Howard County's Charter replaces gender-specific words like "he" and "she" with gender-neutral words like "they" and "them" [1]. The Charter is the county's founding document [4].

## What a FOR vote does
A FOR vote makes gender-neutral changes to the Charter [1]. The County Council placed the question on the ballot through Council Resolution CR23-2026 [2]. The amendment does not propose any change to public safety funding [5].

## What an AGAINST vote does
An AGAINST vote leaves the gender-specific words in the Charter unchanged [1].

## Strongest case FOR
- The county's LGBTQIA+ Commission recommended the change. In a letter, it said county laws should "reflect the diverse identities" of residents [4].
- Councilmember Christiana Rigby's legislation says gender-neutral language "promotes clarity, consistency and equal treatment" by making sure Charter rules apply to all people, regardless of gender identity [4].
- Political analyst John Dedie said governments have commonly made this kind of change because more women now take part in public life [5].
- Prince George's and Anne Arundel County voters approved similar charter changes in 2022. In Prince George's, more than two-thirds voted yes. In Anne Arundel, almost 60% did [4].

## Strongest case AGAINST
- Fitzgerald Mofor, a candidate for the House of Delegates in District 9A, said county leaders were too focused on the charter change while residents worry about household costs and safety. He called the council "out of touch" [5].
- Dedie said residents want progress on bigger concerns. He called the amendment "kind of low-hanging fruit in politics," meaning an easy step [5].
- A possible argument: The current wording already works, so changing the founding document is not necessary.
- A possible argument: Some readers may find "they" less clear than "he" or "she" when it refers to one person.

## If you care most about...
- **Charter language that includes every gender identity** -> FOR fits, because that is the goal the LGBTQIA+ Commission stated [4].
- **Matching nearby counties** -> FOR fits, because Prince George's and Anne Arundel changed their charters in 2022, and Baltimore County changed its county code in July [4].
- **Keeping the founding document's current wording** -> AGAINST fits, because an AGAINST vote leaves the words unchanged [1].
- **Wanting county leaders to focus on costs and crime** -> AGAINST may fit, based on Mofor's criticism [5]. However, the amendment itself does not change public safety funding [5].

## Who supports and who opposes
- **Supports:** The Howard County LGBTQIA+ Commission recommended the change [4]. Councilmember Christiana Rigby sponsored the resolution [2]. All five councilmembers voted yes on March 2, 2026: Liz Walsh, Opel Jones, Christiana Rigby, Deb Jung and David Yungmann [3].
- **Opposes:** No organized opposition was found in sources checked. Fitzgerald Mofor criticized the council's priorities, but the cited article does not say whether he urged a vote against Question A [5].

## What we could not verify
- The exact Charter sections and words that would change. The official amendment-text PDF could not be read by our tools.
- Any cost of making the change.
- League of Women Voters/Vote411, Ballotpedia and Baltimore Banner coverage. We could not open those pages.
- Fitzgerald Mofor's party. It was not stated in the source.

## Confidence
Medium. What each vote does comes from official sources, but the arguments come from only two news reports, and no organized opposition was found.

## Sources
[1] Ballot Questions for the November 3, 2026 Election - Maryland State Board of Elections - https://elections.maryland.gov/elections/2026/ballot_questions.html
[2] Legislation Details for CR23-2026 - Howard County Council (OLIS) - https://apps.howardcountymd.gov/olis/LegislationDetail/14962/CR23-2026
[3] CR23-2026 Final Passage Vote Record - Howard County Council (OLIS) - https://apps.howardcountymd.gov/olis/api/Motions/MotionVote/5264
[4] Should Howard's charter say 'they' instead of 'he' or 'she'? Voters get to weigh in. - Baltimore Sun - https://www.baltimoresun.com/2026/10/20/howard-voters-gender-neutral/
[5] Howard County voters to decide Question A, swapping gendered terms for neutral wording - WJLA/FOX45 - https://wjla.com/news/local/howard-county-voters-question-a-gender-specific-terms-neutral-wording-fitzgerald-mofor-public-safety-funding