The Gay Fight Ain't Over
Without looking it up, when do you think gay marriage was legalized across all 50 states? I’ll give you a minute to think about it.
Ready?
It was seven years ago in 2015. Doesn’t seem like it was that recent, does it? Maybe it’s because I haven’t been trying to get married to a man that I take that time span for granted. For most people, myself included, gay marriage has felt like a settled issue. Unlike reproductive rights, there hasn’t been a vocal majority movement getting much mainstream attention. But that doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.
Ever since conservatives took a big chunk of the SCOTUS bench, there have been calls to overturn a few key decisions. Roe v. Wade is one of them, obviously. Obergefell v. Hodges (gay marriage) is another. And for some reason, Loving v. Virginia (interracial marriage) is another. This is in spite of the vast majority of Americans supporting all three of those decisions by huge margins. Don’t take my word for it. Here’s a sitting senator talking about it:
State’s rights. Hmm. Where have I heard people make that argument before? Oh right:
The Civil War! I remember being taught that the Civil War wasn’t fought over slavery. No, no, no. It was about state’s rights. Namely, the right to own slaves. The case for state’s rights has been used to try and impede progress pretty much since 1789 when the Constitution was written. In fact, there was so much confusion over what the federal government could and couldn’t do they needed a couple more amendments to figure it out.
And once again, our nation finds itself facing battles on multiple fronts involving the ability of individual states to strip rights from their citizens in the name of some misguided religious effort. Of course, the first thing that the Founders added to the Constitution was to protect citizens from a government religion or from the repression of their own. It’s literally the first thing they wrote down! “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof”. See? Before guns and speech, they wanted to ensure that the government was secular.
There are some people who think that allowing people to get gay married or have an abortion IS repression of their religion. But no one is forcing anyone to marry or get an abortion. Only that people who do not follow religious dogma are able to exercise their right to do so. That’s pretty much what many of these cases came down to. Since we live in the worst timeline possible, there has been a resurgence among conservatives to try and ban gay marriage again.
This was a losing issue for Republicans 10 years ago and it remains so today. Expect in a few states chock full of backward-ass bigots. Like Florida. You might have heard about the recent passage of the “Don’t Say Gay” bill. In truth, that’s not what it’s called. Only a moron would name a bill that. Instead, its official title is the “Parental Rights in Education" bill. Sounds much better, no? It’s a lie, a bigot in mom jeans.
At first blush, you might think “hmmm that doesn’t sound unreasonable — not teaching little kids about sexuality. Seems fine!” But the thing is, it does so much more than that. For starters, the language of the bill is purposely vague, allowing a wide range of interpretations. Imagine this scenario: I’m a married gay 2nd-grade teacher. The kids ask me about my home life like who I am married to. Can I answer them? It depends. Does everything a teacher says in a school count as instruction? Depends on who is hearing the case. You could argue that me telling a student that I am married to a man counts as instruction since I am in a position of authority in class and the students are forced to be a captive audience. What if I’m trans and the kids ask about why I have an Adam’s Apple or look different than their mom? Can I tell them what transgenderism is at that point?
All of this is being done under the guise that we are “protecting” kids. But protecting them from what, exactly? I had crushes on girls in 2nd and 3rd grade. If I were gay, it would stand to reason that I’d feel the same about boys. And what about the spectrum of sexuality? What if it isn’t the narrow binary we’ve all been indoctrinated to believe in. As we’ve seen, the younger generations are a lot more fluid in who they love:
What if we’re wrong about binaries and everything is really just a spectrum? That seems to be the truth and research backs it up.
Kids do not need protection from gay people or trans people. They need protection from guns. They need protection from poverty. They need protection from divestments in education. A law like this will scare teachers into denying the existence of their gay and trans students. That’s bad! Especially when you consider how many kids are killing themselves these days.
As long as there are bigots the fight for rights will never be over. It’s sad and unconscionable. But that is the reality we face. Be vigilant and support candidates who don’t want to roll the calendar back, even if it’s only to 2015.