The Supreme Court decision and Gays
Gay marriage ruling might be overturned as well as the ruling against anti-Gay sex laws. The incompetence of the neoliberals, Alphabet Soup.
SUPREME COURT ABORTION DECISION AND GAYS
What does the recent Supreme Court decision which overturned Roe v. Wade and which has allowed the state laws regarding abortion to come into effect mean for Gays?
We don’t get pregnant or have to deal with it, it doesn’t mean that this isn’t important for the Gay community.
The Gay community is in real peril, but before we get to that in the second half of this essay, I think some other things need to be considered.
These three things need to be considered also:
1. The neoliberals were defeated. They weren’t able to protect abortion rights. It isn’t clear that they have any plan. Their competency and ability to defend Gays is very questionable.
2. The screaming faction of the neoliberals and in particular the screaming faction of the feminist movement don’t seem to have realized they were defeated and only have screaming as a strategy. They haven’t realized they are a liability for abortion rights.
3. There is an opportunity for Gays to deal with the Alphabet Soup during this crisis.
I am going to discuss the very real danger after discussing these three points.
Neoliberals
The neoliberals lost a fifty-year struggle to a bunch of lunatic religious zealots. This is despite the fact that the nation as a whole is becoming much less religious and with a trend towards liberalism.
Perhaps the strategy of an economic program favoring the upper classes and crushing workers combined with social liberalism isn’t the winning combination that neoliberals thought it was.
The neoliberals also lack critical self-evaluation. Hillary Clinton had lost the 2008 presidential nomination to Barack Obama, a junior senator from Illinois, that should have told people that she wasn’t a strong candidate. When a person like Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton in 2016 there wasn’t a critical self-evaluation as to the folly of having selected her to be a candidate. Nor would anyone point out that you aren’t much of a candidate if Donald Trump can defeat you at the polls.
From 2016 to 2020 the Democrats kept talking about some Blue Wave where the Democrats were going to trounce the Republicans. The idea was that some how Trump was some type of momentary aberration and the United States would wake up and the Republicans were going to be trounced. Instead, the Democrats barely win the elections for the presidency in 2020 by a hair. Their margin in the U.S. House shrank.
Looking towards the 2022 mid-term elections it looks like the Democrats might lose both the U.S. House and the U.S. Senate, and they have already lost the Supreme Court.
Things are dire.
In a time of crisis was Joe Biden the best choice to lead the Democrats? No. However, the neoliberals rather let the Democratic Party go down to defeat than lose control or change the way they run the Democratic Party.
Joe Biden’s administration has informed the public that he is against expanding the Supreme Court, one of the few viable possibilities to preserve abortion rights.
The specifics of my interpretation of politics aren’t the important thing here.
What is important is that the neoliberals are politically losing and have been losing for some time now, maybe a decade or more. Whatever the reason they seem to be clueless and they don’t seem to have a viable political program. They seem to think that at some point in time things will magically correct themselves and their inevitable triumph will happen. I don’t think they can imagine that they can go down to crushing defeat.
Expecting that the neoliberals will be able defend the rights of Gay people is folly.
The Gay community needs to consider how it might defend itself. If a mob attacked your house or apartment and the police were on the way, every minute you can keep the mob at bay would help. It might be a good idea to consider how you might increase the security of your place. It is good to prevent burglary anyways.
It might be a good idea to get a fire arm. If they do break into your place what is your plan then? Do you have a back pack to put in the car if you need to leave suddenly? How much cash is in your wallet? If you had to move to another state where would you go and find a job there?
Generally, it would be good to start contingency planning now.
Screamers
They don’t seem to understand that they have lost and screaming failed to prevent the loss of abortion rights. They still think ganging up and mobbing people on social media platforms is going to defend women’s rights. In particular they mob people who are largely liberal but don’t agree to every detail of their orthodoxy.
They think that they represent a historically inevitable force so they don’t have to persuade, just denounce.
It hasn’t occurred to them that there must be a lot of people they have severely alienated and when the tide turns will likely act upon that alienation.
On social media the screamers are circulating demands that vasectomies should be mandatory or that men who support women’s rights should get vasectomies.
For example, these tweets. Sorry, I have three repeats in case one tweet disappears.
This is being circulated all over Twitter and Facebook. There is also the idea that Viagra for men needs to be banned.
There doesn’t seem to be any awareness or concern that demand for vasectomies reinforces the idea that feminists are man-haters and, in many cases, it is revealing that they are man-haters. There is absolutely no awareness that persuasion and argument might be what they need to do instead.
The program at this time is to just run around protesting and attempt to mob the homes of Supreme Court justices as if that really has a chance.
The neoliberals are going to recognize that they are a liability if they haven’t already, and with Hillary’s comments on trans, likely they have recognized that already, that the screamers are a potential liability in the upcoming elections and could be the cause of an electoral disaster.
What Gays need to understand is that the screamers are a force which is isolating itself from sources of potential support, losing the support of the neoliberals, building a negative image of itself, and is losing rapidly its ability to inflict harm on Gays.
Gays need to recognize that the screamers are an imploding social force and act accordingly, that is respond to their attacks.
Gay opportunities
The Alphabet Soup and neoliberals are going to be dealing with a crisis. Likely they will have less time and resources to go after Gays. Maybe it will be considered that having an article in which a transman denounces Gays for not having sex with them doesn’t build solidarity with Gay people.
The credibility of the Alphabet Soup might decline with the collapse in confidence in the neoliberal abilities to protect Gays.
Gays have been talking about how trans extremism was going to be a disaster for Gay rights and the current disaster with abortion rights makes the possibility of trans crazies being the cause of a disaster for Gay rights much more credible.
As pointed out, the screamers at some point will realize their support has disappeared and they are the subject of critical editorials in the neoliberal media such as the New York Times and Washington Post and the leftist media like The Guardian. I think a shift has been steadily happening.
We are going to have opportunities to push back. Just having them realize that they have lost the support of the neoliberals and the left will be demoralizing and demoralized the screamers will be less of a threat or act even crazier further discrediting themselves.
I think it is valid to point out that the screamers have been counter-productive to feminism and can reasonably be considered a factor in the defeat of abortion rights.
A lot of women are likely to be really alienated by self-serving nonsense by trans and the screamers. For example, this Facebook post. Suddenly, trans nonsense becomes really annoying when women’s rights are in real danger.
After Gay marriage is undone, and anti-Gay sex laws are back on the books, I think Gays will get mobilized and trans nonsense is not going to be looked at favorably either.
There are going to be opportunities when the neoliberal order is in turmoil, we need to be looking for these opportunities and expecting that they might appear and be quick to act upon them.
THE CURRENT DANGEROUS SITUATION
Justice Clarence Thomas suggest that the Supreme Court should look at the earlier rulings of the Supreme Court on contraception, Gay marriage, and anti-Gay sex laws. This politico article refers to contraception and Gay marriage.
https://www.politico.com/news/2022/06/24/thomas-constitutional-rights-00042256
Further this next article points out that Clarence Thomas wants to have the Supreme Court reconsider its earlier ruling on laws banning Gay sex.
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/us-supreme-court-overturns-abortion-rights-landmark-2022-06-24/
This is a real possibility.
The justices who voted to overturn abortion rights were Amy Coney Barrett, Samuel A. Alito, Jr., Brett Kavanaugh, Neil M. Gorsuch, and Clarence Thomas for a total of six.
Those voting against the ruling were Stephen G. Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan.
The decision for Gay marriage was 5-4 and the vote for Gay marriage was Anthony Kennedy, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor, and Elena Kagan.
Only three of the five are still on the Supreme Court.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Obergefell_v._Hodges
The decision striking down the anti-Gay sex laws was also 6-3. Those who voted to strike it down was John Paul Stevens, Anthony Kennedy, David Souter, Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Stephen Breyer, with Sandra Day O’Conner also ruling against it in a separate opinion.
Only two of those judges are still on the Supreme Court.
So, there is a real danger that two major decisions supporting Gays are in danger.
Also, it should be pointed out that anti-Gay sex laws wouldn’t apply to trans people. A transman having sex with a man would not be recognized as in violation of the anti-Gay sex laws, and a transman could marry a man under the law. We aren’t the same and we shouldn’t expect much trans support on this. The trans extremists hate Gays and we can expect that some will see it as a reason to push transmen onto Gay men as sexual partners.
Things are not likely to be going back to where they were before these supreme court decisions.
The right wing is much more mobilized. With the anti-Gay sex laws on the books, it might be that state officials will decide that they won’t be dead letters and seek to actively prosecute and also pass supporting legislation to go after the Gay and Lesbian bars, the hook up apps, as places which lead to violation of the anti-Gay sex laws.
They also realize that this is a struggle to the end for them. With Christianity in steep decline and the shifting demographics they can see clearly how they might be totally dispossessed from power. Only with repressive legislation attacking minorities and voting rights and other anti-democratic mechanisms can they expect to have any political future.
BE PREPARED
1. Look at the security of your house or apartment and have a plan if attacked by a mob.
2. Have a getaway bag packed.
3. Start contingency planning.