diff --git a/ietf/utils/text.py b/ietf/utils/text.py
index c929843c5..ad1cd1c3c 100644
--- a/ietf/utils/text.py
+++ b/ietf/utils/text.py
@@ -11,6 +11,7 @@ from django.utils.safestring import mark_safe
 
 import debug                            # pyflakes:ignore
 
+@keep_lazy(six.text_type)
 def xslugify(value):
     """
     Converts to ASCII. Converts spaces to hyphens. Removes characters that
@@ -21,7 +22,6 @@ def xslugify(value):
     value = unicodedata.normalize('NFKD', value).encode('ascii', 'ignore').decode('ascii')
     value = re.sub('[^\w\s/-]', '', value).strip().lower()
     return mark_safe(re.sub('[-\s/]+', '-', value))
-xslugify = keep_lazy(xslugify, six.text_type)
 
 def strip_prefix(text, prefix):
     if text.startswith(prefix):