It isn’t JUST that we can get pregnant too. Although there’s that.
It isn’t JUST that rape affects our community too. Although there’s that.
It’s that individual liberties grow and shrink together.
When Roe is overturned, what is next? Is it Griswold? Or Casey?
Or, is it Windsor? Or Obergefell?
In fact, they will come for ALL of our rights once they learn that ANY of our rights are vulnerable. The same roadmap will be used again and again and again.
Griswold may have been the right that allowed women any power whatsoever over their own bodies; but, it was Roe that made us equal. It isn’t a coincidence that Roe was 1973, and women got the right to carry credit cards in their own name in 1974.
I remember, in the 1980s, I was asked why they should hire *me*, who could get pregnant at any time, versus a man, who couldn’t. The answer — that I was a lesbian, and therefore, unlikely to get pregnant at any time — only led to the question “why should we hire you at all?”.
Any victory, at any level, that gays achieved, was fought against a chorus of “no special rights for gays”. Like, that “special right” to work jobs that we are qualified to do, for example, even if they involve security clearances, or teaching, or whatever. And, the “special right” marry the person of our choice. The “special right” to survivorship when our spouse passes away. The “special right” to be a full parent to the children growing up under our own roofs (i.e., “let me talk to the REAL mom...”).
There are literally thousands of “special rights” that gay people had to fight tooth and nail to get, until Anthony Kennedy made that moot. Like there were thousands of “special rights” that women had to fight for, until Ruth Bader Ginsburg made that moot.
But there’s no such thing as “settled law” for Republicans. “Get over it” is for Democrats.
Long story short: abortion is a right only for people with uteruses. Uteri. Whatever. It doesn’t get more “special” than that. If we wrote all laws that affected men and women the same, ANYTHING that is part of the female experience — just like EVERYTHING that is part of the gay experience — is up for grabs.
Which is exactly what the right wing wants. And it is what this Court is likely to deliver.
So, we lesbians stand foursquare behind abortion rights — although they don’t affect us directly — in the hopes that we can beat them back at the gates.
Because they are coming for Obergefell and Windsor just as sure as they are coming for Casey and Griswold.
And, if you don’t know these Supreme Court cases by name, thank the gods for your privilege. But, don’t think that your privilege is immutable — it’s not — or even safe — it likely isn’t. And stand with us, standing with others.
We are the canaries in the coal mine.
And just now, it’s not safe down here.