The recent Supreme Court ruling overturning Roe v. Wade marked an unprecedented step toward invalidating not only the rights of women to choose what is in their best interest and that of their health, but also left the door wide open for further encroachments to our collective freedoms. The actions of the five justices who voted against this basic human right have mortally wounded (the rational part of) our country's already shaky trust in the SCOTUS and shattered any notion of impartiality on behalf of the justices.
Unfortunately, the war SCOTUS waged against Americans has been decades in the making, bringing to light an evil that has been lurking in the shadows. How we got here so rapidly is no mystery. The fundamentalist christian (intentionally lowercase) terrorists who now plague our country have been spewing the same tired rhetoric for as long as I can remember, but only through the hate-fueled MAGA movement led by a certain celebrity con man have they been empowered and emboldened.
Through previous posts, I have examined my relationship, or lack thereof, with my homophobic, racist and xenophobic parents. It should come as no surprise, then, that my mother is firmly pro-life. As with most socially conservative people, she believes that life begins at conception and is the greatest gift of all. She views all forms of abortion as murder, birth control as sinful, and, like traditional Catholics who follow the Vatican's antiquated mandates, has been praying for an end to Roe v. Wade for as long as I can remember.
Nearly 30 years ago, my mom penned an op-ed for a Catholic magazine, The Catholic Family's Magnificat, leading with a warning that we were on our way to the big, bad New World Order, for which she planted the seed of fear in my head early during my teenage years. Contradicting her belief that life is the ultimate gift, her article speaks out against the United States signing and ratifying the 1989 United Nations Convention of the Rights of the Child, which recognizes "that everyone is entitled to all the rights and freedoms set forth therein, without distinction of any kind, such as race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or social origin, property, birth or other status."¹ To date, the United States is the only country not to have ratified this treaty.
In her piece, my mom calls this measure a "dangerous attempt to destroy our parental rights and grab our children" by "population planners" who believe that "every child should be a wanted child."² She calls upon like-minded Catholics to wage war "for our beliefs and our children" using her weapons of choice: "Truth (found in Jesus Christ) and Prayer."² Her prevailing message is control: gatekeeping the right to abortion and exerting ownership over children by stripping away their rights.
Anybody who doesn't share these principles is in the wrong and in need of salvation. This became abundantly clear to me as a child when she implicated that Catholicism is the one true faith and that other Christian religions are "lesser than" (something which she later denied). It became abundantly clear when she told me that the "homosexual lifestyle" is in opposition to the will of god (also intentionally lowercase), that gay people are called to a life of chastity, and that we "agree to disagree" because I rejected her baseless claims. It became abundantly clear when she brandished me a Communist because I expressed my support for Democratic Socialist Bernie Sanders during the 2016 election.
Herein lies the problem: What used to be her opinion and that of the underground fundamentalist christian movement was validated and brought to the mainstream by this country's former "leader," alt-right media and extremists lurking on the "Information Highway Express"² (as she described the Internet in the most boomer way possible).
Having spent what seemed like an eternity hoping for the legalization of same-sex marriage (not discounting the lifetime many had to wait), I can see the writing on the wall, especially after Clarence Thomas' recent call to "revisit" Obergefell v. Hodges. It both terrifies and enrages me that five dissenting voices have the power to overrule the will of the majority. It terrifies and enrages me that red hats are painted as "patriots" and placed into positions of power. More than anything, it terrifies and enrages me that this vocal minority is too far gone. Brainwashed by years of alt-right propaganda, very little can be done to reeducate them.
In the interest of protecting our rights and those of others, it is critical that we call out extremists who make it their mission to lord over those whose lives and actions have no bearing on their own. At the same time, they crave attention, even if negative, and will jump at the opportunity to use this to amplify their platform.
Like many Americans, Rich and I have begun discussing a not-too-distant future where we may need to flee the United States for a progressive country. This is the reality of America in 2022, and continuing the theme from my last post, it is a direct result of the 2016 election.
By 32, I had shed most of the harmful views my parents had imposed upon me, but I still allowed their obsessive disdain for the Clintons to pollute my views. Hence, as a progressive Democrat, I threw away my vote by writing in Bernie Sanders. In hindsight, this was a fatal mistake that helped pave the way for the eventual fall of American society. Once again, I encourage you to learn from my mistake and make your vote count in every election.
Vote like the future of our country depends on it - because it does!
Sources:
¹ Convention on the Rights of the Child, New York, 20 November 1989, United Nations Treaty Series, vol. 1577, p. 3, available from https://treaties.un.org/doc/Treaties/1990/09/19900902%2003-14%20AM/Ch_IV_11p.pdf.
² Cale, Joyce. "The Convention on the Rights of the Child: Freedom or Bondage?" EWTN, 1994, https://www.ewtn.com/catholicism/library/convention-on-the-rights-of-the-child-freedom-or-bondage-10989. Originally published in The Catholic Family's Magnificat, 1994.
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