photo mine (beware of Harlan)
One of the main slogans that AIDS activists, particularly ACT UP, used was Silence = Death. We only got action when we demanded it but also when we introduced people with AIDS so it was no longer "those people" but one of our own. That also had the side effect of many people coming out as LGBTQetc. and the more of us came out the more comfortable it was for others to come out until it became obvious that we were everyone. That's when we got our big breakthrough on rights. It wasn't because society suddenly changed their mind.
I've also worked as a pro-choice activist and I've worked for the rights of people of color. All are related and all are different. Most people of color cannot hide their "difference". I don't know how to move forward while white people are afraid of people of color while people of color are routinely murdered because of their color.
Pro-choice is a tricky one. I understand the anti-choice philosophy up to a point. If it's murder I would fight against it too. But it's not murder. Far more women than most people suspect have had abortions and for all sorts of reasons and from the onset of puberty right up to menopause.
But Nathanael Hawthorne got it right in <i>The Scarlet Letter</i> - the woman will be punished and the man will not. So women don't talk about it. If your mother had an abortion you probably wouldn't know about it. Nearly every woman miscarries at some point while never realizing that they were ever pregnant but miscarriage, when known, can be very traumatic.
Now throw in incest and rape and the bravest young woman in Kentucky. She was repeatedly raped by her father, impregnated by him at twelve and was spared the choice of blaming a boy or going to a clinicc by having a traumatic miscarriage. Eventually she wrote her thoughts down and posted them online. They caught the attention of the Beshear campaign who asked her to speak for them. She did, knowing that everyone would know her as the girl who was raped. She's a big reason why Beshear was reelected. She, herself, was elected Homecoming Queen at her conservative Christian college. [Washington Post - gifted]
via Washington Post
via Slate
Let's take a deep dive into just how terrible things could get if Trump is reelected. We'll start with Liz Cheney's view. [NPR]
via NPR
CNN and the Washington Post provide their own analyses. [CNN] [Washington Post - gifted]
via Washington Post
Political discussion welcome
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