It’s been a tough few weeks at the Supreme Court, particularly if you are not a straight, white, cisgendered man.
Besides the setbacks to federal environmental protections and gun safety regulations at the state level, the horrific decision in the Dobbs case that essentially overturned the constitutional right to abortion is a vicious attack on women’s health. The going wisdom is that LGBTQ+ rights may well be next, but in fact, this ruling affects anyone with a uterus, including many members of the LGBTQ+ community.
The attack has already begun.
It is not unimaginable with this current court, of course, that other precedents we’ve taken for granted, such as the right to privacy in our sex lives or the right to marriage equality, could be in danger. Justice Thomas all but laid out the game-plan in his concurring opinion.
It’s very easy to be discouraged and demoralized right now. But there is also reason to hope.
The truth is, there are more of us than there are of them. We are all in this fight together. Women. LGBTQ+ people. Immigrants. Any minority whose rights are under assault. None of us is free until all of us are free.
But we have to be committed to working together, starting at the ballot box. We have to be committed to electing only candidates who explicitly make expanding human rights a priority. Don’t just listen to what they say. Read between the lines. Look at what they do. At the federal level and in every state, up and down the ballot.
There are more of us than there are of them. If we fight together, we know we will win.