I was prepared for a lot of things when I moved from southern Indiana to Wisconsin. I knew the weather would be harsher in the winter. I knew that no one would know what a Hoosier is. I even knew that people up here are into ice hockey. What I wasn’t prepared for was exactly how chaotic it is living in a vital swing state during a presidential election.
I’ve received in a single day 12 calls labeled by Apple as “political calls,” there is a stack of campaign mail sitting on my coffee table about 3 inches high, and every single algorithmically driven advertisement is for a political candidate. Honestly, I never thought I would miss what happened a few months ago when the algorithm assumed that because I’m in my late 20s I must be in the market for diapers and baby formula. Never in my life have I seen candidates so invested in my vote, which is admittedly a lot of pressure.
It’s not just my geography, though, that makes this election particularly stressful. Reproductive and transgender rights are two of the biggest issues of this election, dominating much of the messaging for local, state and federal candidates. And for younger Millennials and Gen Z’ers like myself, when it comes to these two particular issues, the stakes have never been higher. Generally, I prefer to follow a life philosophy that acknowledges the world is an incredibly complex place and there are not simple answers to things. But sometimes the stakes are so high that complexity has to fall way to rare, simple truths.
Transgender and reproductive rights are proxy issues for the larger war being waged on secular democracy.
Christo-fascism, like all forms of fascism, relies on strict gender hierarchies and social conformity. It relies on the definition of “womanhood” being boiled down to reproductive capacity, and limiting social and bodily autonomy in the name of protecting said reproductive capacity. The most conservative sects of Christianity, which are also the most likely to produce Christian nationalist political candidates, are clear examples of this. Children assigned female at birth and raised within these groups are often coerced into marrying young, having as many children as possible, and obeying their husband as if he were God himself. Deviation from this set plan is met with social ostracization and often physical, mental and sexual abuse under the guise of religious “counseling.” Infertility is viewed as a punishment for sin, and birth control and abortion are the most heinous of crimes. Gender nonconformity of any kind is unthinkable.
I know that there will be people who read this blog and take issue with my equating transgender rights and reproductive rights. There are plenty of people who support the right to abortion, fertility care and birth control who don’t like trans people. And while this blog is not where anyone is going to be convinced to the contrary, I do encourage those people to take a step back and examine what I am really saying here.
The goal of the anti-transgender political movement is to eliminate trans people from public life — and the only way to do that is to intrude on medical and bodily autonomy. Choices surrounding gender-affirming health care, clothing, and how someone wishes to be addressed are no more the business of the government than reproductive choices.
To be clear, not every candidate, or private individual, who opposes these rights is a Christian nationalist, or even a generic fascist. Precision with words is important. However, they are still enabling those systems. There is no voting for a candidate opposing bodily autonomy that does not lead this country further down the path towards theocracy. There is a very real chance that this could be our last opportunity to set the United States back on a path of progress for a generation, and we all need to ask ourselves now as to which candidates are going to implement policies that protect us all. As the internet often points out, you can’t vote for the “Panthers Eating Your Face” party, and then be surprised when the panthers eat your face.
Kat Grant (they/them) joined the Freedom From Religion Foundation as an Equal Justice Works Fellow (sponsored by the Wm. Collins Kohler Foundation) in September 2022. Their fellowship project focuses on state/church issues that specifically impact the LGBTQ-plus community. Kat first worked for FFRF as an intern while attending law school at the Indiana University Maurer School of Law. Originally from southern Indiana, they received their B.A. in political science from Indiana University Bloomington in 2019, and graduated with their Juris Doctor from IU Maurer in May 2022.