President insists on being called “presidente”, not “presidenta”, to reject “gender ideology”.

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President insists on being called “presidente”, not “presidenta”, to reject “gender ideology”.

2026 May 8

On the day she was sworn in as Costa Rica’s 50th head of state, Laura Fernández announced she would reject the feminine form “presidenta” and require that she be addressed as “presidente”, a decision she framed as a repudiation of what she called “gender ideology.” Fernández, the second woman to ever hold the office, made the choice on the same day Costa Rica reached parity in the Legislative Assembly for the first time in its history (30 women out of 57 seats).

The stance aligns Fernández with Pilar Cisneros, head of the ruling Partido Pueblo Soberano caucus during the previous administration, who had adopted the same usage. Inclusive language has been a recurring target of Costa Rica’s conservative bloc; the outgoing Chaves government, in which Fernández served as Minister of the Presidency, repealed Ministry of Public Education guidelines on inclusive language and on comprehensive sexuality and affectivity at the request of evangelical pastors. During the campaign Fernández signed a written commitment with evangelical leaders pledging “education without gender ideology” among the “non-negotiable values” of her government.

María José Cascante, a University of Costa Rica political scientist specializing in gender, told reporters that “inclusive language is associated with progressivism, and is therefore in the crosshairs of this conservative sector.” Trans, nonbinary and gender-diverse Costa Ricans receive their primary symbolic recognition from the state through language and through the gender markers on official documents; the new president’s opening gesture signals continued institutional hostility to that recognition.

News article in Spanish: