Choice...

I was going to write yesterday but I needed to sit with everything for a day. I needed to find a space to have something more to say than, "Those motherfuckers"

So here we are a little over 24 hours later and...

I'm still angry. 

I mean we knew it was coming. The leaked draft was intended to harden those justices that might be on the fence. To make sure they could feel righteous about voting to take away rights. It was supposed to put Roberts in the corner and force his vote to over turn Roe as well. That part didn't work. He was still trying for incremental repeal, but the hyper-conservative Supreme Court did hyper-conservative Supreme Court things and overturned it. 

It's been weird to watch members of Congress act shocked that they were lied to during their confirmation hearings. That the ones that voted to overturn Roe swore that it was settled law and there was no way they would overturn it. I mean, I knew they were lying, you knew they were lying, why would anyone be shocked they were lying? The whole reason they made The Federalist's list was because they said they would overturn Roe given the chance. Fucking Kavanaugh lied about shit he didn't need to, of course he lied about Roe. The ends justify the means. That's the playbook here. 

And, honestly, any member of Congress acting shocked now is lying as well. They knew. 

I hate the "It's up to the States" rhetoric that is coming out. It's a medical privacy issue. The government shouldn't be involved at any level. The Federal legality of it made it so the States couldn't tell you that you couldn't get the procedure. That's what being legal meant. And as soon as Roe passed it started to get chipped away at. Oh you can have an abortion at this point but not at that one. Oh you can get one for this reason and not that one. Oh I support choice in these circumstances and not those. 

I've written about abortion a number of times. You are either in favor of personal health care being a private discussion between a patient and a doctor or you are about controlling care that people can get. Oh I know, there are those of you out there sputtering "But but but vaccines!" and I'm going to sputter back at you, I'm consistent. I do not believe you should be forced to get vaccinated. BUT...I do believe that organizations and venues can require you to have been vaccinated to attend or to work there. I know a lot of you don't see the difference and think that not being allowed to go where ever you want at all times means you're being forced to do something, but it doesn't. It means you pay the consequence for not doing something and if you believe in it strongly, then you should be fine with that. 

I don't want to force care on you, but I don't want your lack of care to force disease on me. And since I can't catch pregnancy from a pregnant person breathing on me I don't care what choice they make. 

And Roe is the blueprint for a number of decisions that followed. Privacy and autonomy and equal protection. All of that is up in the air now. 

Thomas lined it out; birth control, marriage equality and criminalization of homosexuality, now he conveniently left Loving off his list of decisions to destroy. Imagine that. The one that directly affects him he's pretty sure shouldn't be a states rights issue. 

Alito wanted to make sure he let everyone know this decision was only about Roe and wouldn't mean they were looking at anything else and I mean he wouldn't lie about that right? 

Oh wait. 

Yeah. They all lied. So...

This Supreme Court is going to be an historic one. Either one that is looked at for horrific rulings or as the last standing court before the United States went full Christian Nationalism. 

I'm still very angry. 

I'm very worried. Not just for the next generation who finds themselves pregnant and without options, but also for what comes next. Birth control as a whole is on the chopping block. Not just having less control over your own body and your own decisions on procreation but having none. Just cross your fingers and hope. 

And then there are all of the rights for the LGBTQiA+ community. Those are new and freshly won. Imagine how much easier they are to trash than a 50 year precedent founding right was. We've already seen a targeted attack on the trans community, you think the ultra-conservatives will be happy stopping there? 

The majority of people that live in the United States are not in favor of rolling back these rights. Over 60% supported Roe v. Wade, and more than that supported a more limited version of Roe without completely overturning. Marriage equality also gets majority support. But none of that matters because the Supreme Court has been stacked by the Republican party. Five out of nine justices put on the court by a president that initially lost the popular vote (two of them were from Bush's second term where he won the popular vote in his re-election, but he still took office the first time under Electoral College rules). Out of the three Trump justices one was stolen from Obama's term and if you believed it was right to hold that nomination until after the election then the third was stolen from Biden. 

We are in minority majority rule territory. We've lost the courts thanks to McConnell's machinations. The Republican party that is in power right now is much more conservative than the majority of the population of the United States. But still we are living under their rules. And it is probably going to get worse. If they take back the majority in Congress look for nothing at all to get done in Biden's last two years except Hunter Biden investigations, and voter fraud investigations, nothing will be found, but the point isn't to find an issue, it's to make people think there must be an issue or there wouldn't be so many investigations! (but her emails...)

And when a Republican president enters the Oval Office in January 2025 that door shuts on free and fair elections. Done. Over. 

Christian Nationalism Authoritarian rule. 

A lot of us have seen it coming and have been told we were over reacting, it could never happen, there are too many safeguards in place. Not noticing that the safe guards were really just agreements not to behave badly and once you got someone in office who showed there are no consequences for breaking all of the norms there was no reason for anyone to follow them again. 

So yeah, I sat with yesterday's decision before writing anything so I wouldn't just say, "Those motherfuckers" but maybe that would have been more uplifting?

I do want to touch on one more thing here really quickly before I wrap up this piece.

A lot of people are ready to step in and help, and I think that's wonderful and great. But I do want people to understand what that might mean. There is always a record of what you do. Brent and I have been donating to organizations that help people with all of their healthcare decisions and travel arrangements as necessary for awhile. Someone somewhere can track that information. I post about issues all of the time. That's easy to track as well. Helping out, even saying you want to help, can come with a price.

I'll back up here a bit...

For awhile when there was a lot of violence toward Muslim Americans people took to wearing safety pins to show they were a safe person to be next to, a person they could turn to if they were being bothered in public. It's a great idea. Unless you've never been hit in the face. And most people have never been hit in the face. Saying you will step in to situation where violence could potentially happen is a strong statement, but are you really prepared for what that means? Locally we had an incident on a Max train where two young women were being harassed and three people stepped in and they were stabbed. Two of them died. 

If the Republican party has their way and abortion gets a federal ban, gay rights are abolished and criminalized, you have to make a decision. Are you willing to be held to account? I made the joke on my timeline yesterday that in our new live action Handmaid's Tale world I guessed I would be a Martha or on The Wall. 

It's only slightly a joke. I know there are a lot of people out there saying it's an overreaction, but is it? Have we not been taking giant steps backwards? I firmly believe this is the last desperate grasp for power from the people who have always held it. I'm just not sure if it will be successful or not. At least in the balance of my life. 

Corner an animal and they bite. 

Are you willing to be bitten?

Me? I've been hit in the face a few times. It sucks. But I'll stand with you, with us, publicly and loudly until they put me on The Wall. And then I want you to tell everyone how I got there. Whisper it for your safety if you have to, but let them know, someone was there. 

It's not just those motherfuckers...