Amsterdam municipality goes gender-neutral in speeches, letters

The municipality of Amsterdam is taking another step towards gender-neutrality. From now on the municipality is scrapping the words "ladies and gentlemen" from the beginning of speeches and will also no longer start letters with "Dear Sir/Madam", Het Parool reports.

The municipality gave city officials a guide with tips on how to "talk and write in a respectful way about sexual and gender identity", a spokesperson put it, according to the newspaper. Letters and speeches in the Dutch capital will henceforth start with terms like "Best people", "Dear attendees" or "Dear resident of [neighborhood]".

With this Amsterdam is following the example of the London underground, which recently replaced "ladies and gentlemen" with "hello everyone".

A year ago the Amsterdam city council also decided to turn the bathrooms in the city hall gender neutral.