Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders of Arkansas has banned, with an executive order, the use of Latinx in all official state documents in Arkansas. In the order, she states the Latin/Spanish language uses adjectives and nouns with the letters A and O when referring to a person. This is to specifically represent the proper way government documents should be read. In recent years, the term has gained popularity among educators and those who prefer non-binary pronouns. Those in the Latin communities do not use it as a whole, but the newer generation of young adults see the term as a way to not generalize gender specifics on themselves. Only about 3% of the Latin community actually uses the term “Latinx” when referring to oneself or the youths of today.

Governor Sanders states that this term is ethnically insensitive because the root of the Latin language emphasizes the use of masculine and feminine nouns. Governor Sander’s executive order has given Arkansas 60 days to remove this term from the official state document and replace them with the politically correct term of Latina/Latino and/or Hispanic. For many, Hispanic isn’t a term they chose when filling out official documents because they feel it is a generalization of a whole group of people, when really all the paperwork asks is what you choose to go by. Determining wording in documents that are for state use should go to the people and not be chosen by one person. Everyone has their own right and their own way of identification, and they should be able to use “Latinx” as a way of identifying who they are, not by the feminine or masculine.