Patch Blog: Stop Reproduction Politics

Living in a city like West Hollywood, if you share views that include marriage equality, gay rights of any kind, choice and freedom to live your own life without religious intrusion and you have a saner outlook on government, there is a tendency to forget the rest of the country is not West Hollywood.  

The rest of the country is something else, and it has become further and further away from what I personally support and what I believe.

My beliefs include the Constitution and the Bill of Rights and the Declaration of Independence. As a woman, there are certain campaign ideas now that really concern me for future generations of women—daughters, spouses, little girls, and in some cases men (personhood starts with sperm, right?).

The 2012 crusade for president by the highly strange GOP has become a tent revival for the right. And smack in the middle is the vagina. Anyone who has one is a part of the dialogue. The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse (is it four now?) are not running to be the candidates for jobs or the economy or better housing or tax reform or anything else.  

I assume that when blatant racism did not fly, they must have spun so far out of control that all that was left was the "mystical vagina." Considering the number of children among them, it seems they have been to the mountain and kept going back for more.

The recent surge of Sanctum Sanctorum - who may not get the nod for the election, but will surely be nominated to the Office for the Question of the Faith - is baffling to me. Why would any straight male support this man?

If you consider the number of "Deadbeat Dads" and children born without the “name of father” filled in on birth certificates, why would they ever want to speak ill of choice and birth control? It's a way out. I would reckon that more men have uttered the words, "How do I even know it’s mine?” than you would imagine, so what do they want?

Oh right – to be able to go to the vagina without any responsibility for what comes next. Well, that is sort of a given anyway. When I think of the word pillage I always think of the word rape, and it is not an irony when you think about it.

The "Lysistrata" camp is about denial of the vagina to get what you want or not want, and the "pillage and rape" camp supports the use of the penis to wage fear and punishment.

You kind of don’t have to be very smart to see the different vantage points at work here. This speaks volumes about heterosexuals and how the right vilifies LGBT as wrong. In my opinion, it just doesn't make sense. No surprise on this.

So we have this Gang of Four (or apostles or Horsemen)—religious zealots who are running for the GOP nomination on the basis of genitals, the LDS, two crazy Catholics, and the "objectivist."

Is the entire planet cracking up, rolling on the floor laughing their butts off? Probably, but the world as we now know instantly is largely populated by hypocrites, petty tyrants and demi-gods, and so why are we even surprised?

Oh – did I leave out old white straight men? The good, the bad and the ugly. They can’t live with it and they can’t live without it, and spend far too much time denying that they spend far too much time in men's rooms.

So, living in a generally open-minded city, all of this can slip by and then hit you like a flounder in the face. Do not get hit by a flounder in the face. Women, speak out for yourselves; LGBT, demand your rights or demand tax cuts until you get them. And vote.

I am suggesting no one. That's why we vote in private. But think long and hard as you approach November. Own your own lives, genitals, spouses and minds. Others wish to own them too.