I put the word “political” right in the title so the people who hate to see political discussions at Wheat and Tares can avoid this post. It’s okay by me if you don’t read this and leave a comment about how you hate to see political stuff here! Do something you enjoy instead.
Now, onto the post.
In the politically left-leaning circles I inhabit, I hear a reminder every so often. It goes like this: “love the people you want to help more than you hate the people you want to stop.” It’s a reminder to fight for something positive rather than something negative.
I like to think that (some of) America turned away from (some of ) its hatred on Tuesday. These past two years, we’ve seen the impact of government policy that is based on hating people rather than offering support to people.
Abortion
The conservative push to ban abortion is not really based on loving babies; it’s based on hating pregnant women. If conservatives truly wanted to show love to “preborn children,” they would offer a helping hand to pregnant women. A government full of love for fetuses would make maternal healthcare free. The government would offer more job protections for pregnant women. I’ve heard stories about women who work in Amazon warehouses whose bathroom breaks are restricted, and cashiers who are forced by their employer to stand, even though you can run a cash register while sitting on a stool. Perhaps the federal government could pass a law requiring employers to make reasonable accommodations for pregnant women.
A society that loves babies should also make IVF and other fertility treatments affordable and accessible.
Instead, banning abortion is based on hating women. Pregnant women are all cast as baby murderers, whose miscarriages are suspect. Conservatives seek to punish women who had sex even though they didn’t want a baby.
Immigration
Nothing we’ve seen in the past two years regarding immigration has helped legal immigrants integrate into America and become contributing members of society. Immigration policy under Trump has been based on racism and cruelty. ICE was aimed at anyone of color, whether they were American citizens, legal immigrants, or illegal immigrants. It’s been vicious.
What would it look like to love and support legal immigrants? Perhaps the government should focus on services to help immigrants settle into communities. Even in Utah, we’ve got an organization run mostly by volunteers who help refugees settle into the community. The government could also streamline paperwork for asylum requests and hire enough immigration judges to handle the caseload.
It’s okay to regulate and restrict immigration, but let’s see some government policies that are based on love and support instead of hatred and cruelty.
Protecting Women
This goal that’s supposedly based on helping women sure has been weaponized against women!
Conservatives have banned transgender women from women’s bathrooms. There were zero sexual assaults by transgender women perpetrated in bathrooms before the law passed, and there are still zero sexual assaults after the law passed. Instead, we’ve seen women of color and women who are stocky or broad-shouldered harassed for using the women’s restroom.
Many people who have never paid any attention to women’s sports before are now zealous about fairness in women’s sports. Do we think that, just maybe, issues about fairness in women’s sports could be decided at a local level, by the sports league, rather than passing a law requiring girls to get a note from their doctor proving they’re cisgender? The new law in Washington doesn’t allow doctors to rely on the gender on a birth certificate. They have to check the girl’s “reproductive anatomy, genetic makeup, or normal endogenously produced testosterone levels.” Wow, talk about overkill.
Church
The Church’s policies that restrict transgender people from youth callings and make using the bathroom a big, snarly, humiliating ordeal do not do anything to protect children from anything. It just lets closeted transgender people know what fate awaits them if they should choose to ask a Church member to use their chosen pronouns.
The Church’s push in Idaho in support of keeping that restrictive abortion law may result in more babies being born. The Church will continue to do nothing to support the women who gave birth to those babies.
The Church spoke out softly in favor of immigration. I sure hope they stop tiptoeing around the racists.
Conclusion
It’s a parenting truism that it’s better to encourage the behavior you want to see rather than harshly punish the behavior you don’t want to see. It’s a corporate joke to say the beatings will continue until morale improves. It should become a government principle that you don’t hand the haters a blowtorch.
Questions:
Can you think of some ways society can protect women from sexual assault, and ensure fairness in women’s sports, without hating transgender women?
What are some love-and-support-based ways to reduce the number of abortions?
Should the government hire more immigration judges? What other things could the government do to enforce immigration laws besides turning thugs loose on anyone with brown skin and an accent?
The reason that IL26-638 in Washington wouldn’t allow someone to use a birth certificate is because since 2018 WAC-246-490-075 (https://app.leg.wa.gov/wac/default.aspx?cite=246-490-075) allows you to change the gender on your birth certificate to match your “identity”, and the initiative was focused on biology, not identity.
You can disagree with it, but there were specific legal reasons for it related to Washington law and the actual reason behind the initiative.