In May 2016, I proposed to my now husband. It was romantic and exciting. After the 2016 election, things changed.
Instead of the long engagement we’d envisioned, we decided to get married ASAP. I was in grad school in Massachusetts, so my fiancée flew from Illinois, and we were married at Cambridge City Hall. It was last minute, so there were no friends or family present. Only a kind Justice of the Peace and paintings of old white men from bygone eras, who likely would not have approved of our marriage.
At the time, some in my life told me I was being dramatic.
Well.
In his concurrence of the Supreme Court’s recent Dobbs decision, Justice Clarence Thomas writes, “…we should reconsider all of this court’s substantive due process precedents, including Griswald, Lawrence, and Obergefell.” Translation: the overturning of Roe v. Wade could pave the way for repealing the right to contraception, the decriminalization of same-sex relationships, and marriage equality.
Being vindicated in this way gives me no pleasure. But it does show how movements for liberation are interconnected. Abortion and bodily autonomy are intrinsically linked to other civil rights. While experiences of oppression differ among communities and individuals, we can create a coalition that is mutually supportive and liberatory. Moments like this one require bold, collective action from all of us — those of us whose rights hang in the balance and those people of good conscience who see their own humanity bound up with ours, in Dr. King’s “garment of destiny.”
Some will say we’re overreacting, but we know our histories. And we demand our futures.
