reading time: 2 minutes

With bated breath, I will spend my election day. With bated breath, I will wait to see if I should feel hopeful again. With bated breath, I will wait to see a glimpse of the future for this country.

I’ll be honest. I have little hope this morning. I’ve seen too much over the last several years that have sorely dampened my ability to have faity in humanity. It’s an odd place for me to sit, too, knowing that a large part of my family, were they still alive, would likely be voting in ways that would hurt women as well as people I love. That’s hard to reconcile for me.

Trump’s statement that he is going to make “a big announcement” next Tuesday doesn’t help my feeling of doom.

There’s a lot at stake today.

• The Republican party has put Christianity, especially evangelical forms, above all other religions, ignoring the legitmacy of any other religion. Using religion to create policy is dangerous for anyone that falls outside the very narrow scope of this community. This affects women, BIPOC, and those in the LGBTQIA+ communities, their lives to be informed by ONE SINGLE RELIGION.
• The Republican party has purposefully made voting more difficult by moving/closing polling places to systematically effect voting within minority communities. This is open racism, subjugating POC.
• The Republican party has spoken loudly and with no proof of voter fraud, forcing policies that also target minority communities to restrict their ability to vote.
• The Republican party has taken women’s autonomy with THEIR OWN BODIES by using as ONE RELIGION as a weapon to strike down Roe v. Wade. Do you remember when the conservatives complained about masks, and that it was their body, their choice? Do you remember that? Do you remember when the same people decided that women’s bodies were no longer their choice?
• The Republican party has begun criminalizing aspects of the LGBTQIA+ community by making it illegal, in several states, to even speak of anything LGBTQIA+ in schools. Never mind that this is a clear violation of First Amendment rights.
• The Republican party has continually supported policies that are discriminatory. ie, forcing trans soldiers out of the military, the aforementioned targeted voting policies, the “Don’t Say Gay” bills, just to name a few.
• The Republican party has been aggressively against the teaching of critical race theory. Why? Because conservatives find it objectionable to discuss white privilege, inherent bias, and systematic inequaltiy. Why? Because they would then have to take responsibility for putting into place policies that support these things.

I will never support a party/mindset that seeks to control the lives of everyone with policies based on a single religious ideology. I will never support a party/mindset that seeks to limit human rights for marginalized communties. I will never support a party/mindset that uses Christianity as a weaponized collar on the rest of the country.

The whole should not be ruled by the beliefs of a single segment. I don’t give a flying damn what your faith is. You do not have the right to use it to control others.

I have two nieces. I have two gay sons. I will be damned if I let anyone take their rights away without fighting for them to my last breath.

rate this post