Kristine Kruszelnicki+Posted by on Aug 27, 2013 in Featured posts, GLBT |



“May the fetus you save be gay” The pro-choice slogan is oft used as a slight against pro-lifers, many of whom oppose both abortion and gay marriage on religious grounds. After all, the reasoning goes, it would serve you right if a fetus you save from abortion grows up to be gay. Would you wish he’d been aborted then? Would you still fight for his rights?

I can’t speak for all pro-lifers, but as an atheist and a Humanist, fighting for the rights and the lives of all humans is my default setting. A just society can only be called just if it truly respects and behaves fairly to all human beings. All human beings – regardless of their gender, age, ethnicity, size, appearance, physical and mental capacities, religious or political affiliation, marital or relational status, level of education, sexual orientation, or any other number of differences that may exist between human beings. Any human being is just as worthy of his or her life, freedom, and pursuit of happiness as any other human being. As a general principle, only when one’s actions threaten or harm another human being should one’s choices or freedoms be curbed.

And that’s why I’m both pro-life and pro-gay. That’s also why I marched in Ottawa’s Capital Pride parade yesterday holding the following banner:

While in no way intended to suggest that a straight fetus would be inferior to a gay fetus, I was pleased to perform a flipperoo on the pro-choice slogan by turning it into a positive pro-gay and pro-life statement. “May the fetus you save be gay”? Ok, sure! May the fetus we save be gay indeed! (Or straight, Down’s Syndrome, intersexed… – we’ll love them all!)

After standing for the length of the parade on the sideline (with my arms losing circulation) in order to make my sign visible to parade marchers and hand out PLAGAL pamphlets to anyone expressing enthusiasm for the sign, my PLH comrade and I hopped in behind the political banners near the end of the parade stream, and danced, shimmied, and cheered our way past a surprisingly receptive crowd. A small handful of boo’s and the angry fist-raised hollerings of one woman (who kept driving past me in her wheelchair at the post-parade celebration, screaming “PROOO-CHOOOIIIICCCEEE!!! PROOO-CHOOOIIIICCCEEE!!!“) were easily outnumbered by the endless paparazzi of photographers and cheers. Our 75 pamphlets vanished within the first couple blocks (we want to come back next year with at least 1000!) but we happily had enough for the ladies who shouted “THANK YOU! – THANK YOU SO MUCH!” as we passed by, and for the group who went nuts dancing and clapping “YEAH!! YEAH!! PRO-LIFE!!!“. Hopefully we’ll be hearing from them.

Pro-life GLBT aren’t the norm, but just as there are more pro-life atheists than one might expect to find (an American Gallup poll found 19% of non-religious adults identify as pro-life) so too do homosexuals span a wide berth of political views, including diverse views on abortion. Pro-Life Alliance of Gays and Lesbians count 800 in their current membership.

So why should GLBT be pro-life? I’ll let PLAGAL speak to that in their own words. The following summary is a series of my favourite quotes that I’ve pulled from a handful of their brochures – all of which I recommend in their entirety.

“Of all Americans, those of us in the sexual minority community have the most reason to be concerned about protecting human life. After all, we know what it is to have our lives and rights trampled on, especially the basic human right just to keep on living.” ~ 3 “None of us is truly free until all of us are free, with all our rights intact and guaranteed, including the basic right to live without threat or harassment. And that’s why we’re Pro-Life. Just like homophobia, abortion tries to get rid of real human beings who are considered threatening or undesirable. Just like homophobia, abortion denies one’s place as a member of human society, and even one’s right to be alive in it.” ~ 1 “America’s abortion on demand policy… says that some lives can be exterminated at will; birth is a privilege reserved for those deemed eligible. While that policy exists, neither gays nor lesbians — nor, for that matter, the disabled, the elderly, the terminally ill, or any other class of human beings who may be considered ‘expendable’ — are safe.” ~ 2 “If, as recent scientific discoveries suggest, homosexuality has a genetic basis, the day is not far off when doctors will be able to determine if a child in the womb is predisposed to be gay. Once medical science achieves that ability, it will be possible to do by legal, surgical procedure what all the homophobes and gay-bashers throughout history have tried and failed to do — to eliminate lesbians and gays once and for all.” ~ 2 “Today, under the guise of choice, some children are aborted simply because they are the “wrong” sex. What chance would unborn children have of being spared from abortion if they’re deemed to have the wrong sexual orientation?” ~ 4 “…When sexual orientation becomes grounds for abortions, it is difficult to argue that a fetus is not human. If we exterminate a fetus because of his or her intrinsic nature, we are acknowledging that that fetus has the qualities of a unique human being.” ~ 2 “As gay men and lesbian women, we say that all human life deserves dignity and respect. No human life should be considered expendable and the basic right to live should be guaranteed without threat or harassment. That includes the unborn, a voiceless minority with no defense against the worst of all abuses: death.” ~ 3 “The freedom for each of us to dispose of our bodies as we see fit does not give us the freedom to dispose of someone else’s body. No one has the right to decide for others whether they will live or die. Each human life is its own justification for being.” ~ 2 “A society which offers the deaths of their children as an acceptable choice doesn’t place much value on human life, period — women’s lives included. Pro-Life lesbians and gay men work for a society where human life is better valued than it is today. Everyone’s life. Where each person is guaranteed the human rights that belong to us all, whether we are female, male, gay, straight, white, people of color, post born or pre-born. We work for real choices for women so that they do not feel that abortion is their only alternative.” ~ 1 “PLAGAL is committed to the concept that people can live together in peace regardless of sexuality, without hate, without fear. We seek a world where a woman’s right to control her body is not pitted against her child’s right to exist. We support a compassionate society where both can live.” ~ 4 “Why must we speak for unborn people? Simply because they are people. To be pro-life and pro-gay is to affirm that human rights are not discretionary.” ~ 3

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Sources

1: Victims: Lesbians, Gays… and the Unborn

2: Abortion: Another Name for Gay Bashing?

3: Under the Rainbow Flag

4: Human Rights Start When Human Life Begins

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