Women, They’re Coming For You Next

Remember yesterday’s Twat of the Day, SC Rep John Graham Altman, who killed a domestic violence bill the same week he voted to protect gamecocks? Well, if you thought there might be some other explanation beside an abhorrent attitude toward protecting women, you’re wrong:

At Tuesday's meeting, according to the newspaper account, Rep. John Graham Altman asked why the bill's title "Protect Our Women in Every Relationship (POWER)" just mentioned protecting women.

Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Harrison suggested calling the bill the "Protecting Our People in Every Relationship Act," or "POPER," the newspaper reported.

A voice on the tape is heard pronouncing it "Pop her." Then another says "Pop her again," followed by laughter.

I’ve been asked why I am so passionate about fighting for gay rights when I myself am not gay. Here are the reasons:

1) I believe with every ounce of my being in equal rights. I was taught in school from a very early age, as were we all, that America was a place where all people were seen as equal under the law. When I realized this was not true for certain people, simply because of their sexuality, which has no basis for legal discrimination and the prejudice against whom is rooted in a particular and limited religious interpretation that should not have legal standing, it made me fucking mad. I’d feel the same if people with brown eyes were suddenly and randomly exposed to employment, housing, and other types of discrimination.

2) There are people who I love very much, my family by design, who are gay. Until they are no longer treated as second-class citizens, I will not rest.

3) I am motivated in many things by this quote from the Rev Martin Niemöller, a Lutheran minister who lived in Germany during WWII: First they came first for the Communists and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist. Then they came for the Jews and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics and I didn't speak up because I was a Protestant. Then they came for me—and by that time no one was left to speak up for me. What I take away from this sentiment is not the fear, as might be assumed, but obligation. I am obliged to speak up for others who find themselves at the mercy of bigotry and oppression, because we are all in this thing together…and we’re stronger when we fight for each other.

4) The conservative brand of Christianity that is growing in prominence in America, and currently has designs on getting full-scale control of the government (which by the way has a name and we should all be using it: dominionism), has a history of sexuality and gender oppression that is inextricably linked. It’s no coincidence that dominionists are just as opposed to abortion and birth control as they are gay rights. Restricting access to abortion and birth control is about forcing women to cede control over their bodies. The underlying rationale—that they care about the fetus, the whole pro-life banter—is absolute nonsense. If dominionists cared about saving children, they would dedicate at least as much time and energy to solving the problem of poverty in America as they do to criminalizing abortion. That no such sweeping movement to relieve children suffering from poverty, or abuse, is afoot among dominionists tells you everything you need to know about their motivations. They do not care about saving children; they care about controlling women. And I can assure you, it won’t stop with abortion and birth control.

Pop her again.

Liberal women who don’t fervently fight against the assault on gays and lesbians are fools, because if the dominionists win that battle, we’re the next front in their war.