Abortion is soooo gay

My running team happens to be a local member of an international LGBT running club. I ran a half-marathon on the anniversary of Roe v. Wade this year, and as I was getting to the start of my race, I ran into a friend from the running team:

(Note: I am on a running team that is a local member of an international LGBT running club.)

Friend: Happy Roe v. Wade anniversary!

Me: Thanks! I wanted to put something on my shirt about Roe v. Wade but just didn’t get around to it in time.

Friend: That would be a lot of different messages on your shirt since our team logo is already on the front…and people might think our team has an official pro-choice stance.

Me: Ha, yeah, but I hope most people on our team are pro-choice.

Friend: Yeah but how will we recruit all those gay Republicans to join our team then?

Me: Hey you never know, they could be pro-choice Republicans...I mean they are already Log Cabin Republicans so….


One of the things I find interesting about the reproductive rights and LGBT movements is prevalence of the word “choice” and how one embraces it and one defends against it. CHOICE is synonymous with abortion in my mind and the reproductive rights movement has really latched onto this term because it acknowledges bodily autonomy and a woman’s control over her own self. However, the LGBT movement has had to fight off their opponents who say it’s a CHOICE to be gay, transgender, etc. Reproductive rights are all about CHOICE; it’s not being anti-baby or pro-abortion, but about wanting to have a CHOICE. The LGBT movement vehemently opposes the notion that being gay is a CHOICE and argues against those who say they can just as easily CHOOSE to be straight (after all, it just takes a little ‘Ted Haggarding’ to become an “ex-gay”, aka anyone can pray away the gay with the right amount of training and determination!).

When you Google “abortion homosexuality” the second link that shows up leads to a piece called “Abortion and Homosexuality Movements Are Linked in their War Against Life and Marriage”. Funny, I’ve always believed that the movements are intersected and linked too, but for very different reasons. For me, LGBT rights and reproductive rights are both about bodily autonomy. People can do whatever the fuck they want with their bodies!

There are the obvious alliances between the two movements. We are fighting the same enemies and share similar allies. The groups who hate and fight against one of these movements often fight against the other (Umm Westboro Baptist “Church” anyone?). And then there are the LGBT singles and couples that seek to get pregnant and delve into the world of assisted reproductive technology (which has grown thanks to the reproductive rights movement). The clinic I worked at provided abortions in the same space where (mainly) lesbians came to get assistance with pregnancy. Many of these women get on birth control to regulate their period. And then there were even a few times where women who were artificially inseminated unfortunately had to seek out an abortion due to a fetal anomaly or health risk.

And lets not forget about all the lesbian women out there who never plan on needing birth control but take hormonal contraceptives in order to manage their period or decrease acne! I include my own sister in this group and I still find it funny to talk to her about oral contraceptives.

But then you have groups like this who clearly disagree with me and it just blows my mind:
http://www.plagal.org/

They state on their website:
Towards this end PLAGAL was formed: to challenge the notion of abortion as acceptable, to bear witness to the Gay/Lesbian/Bisexual/Transgendered (GLBT) community that abortion rights and GLBT rights are not one and the same, and to work towards those alternatives that are life-affirming as well as pro-woman.

By the way PLAGAL=worst acronym ever

I’ve heard the argument from anti-abortion gay groups that if/when a “gay gene” is discovered then people will do selective abortion based off of sexuality. Anyone have thoughts on this?


Final thought: Clearly our movements need to work together. We both face challenges from those trying to control us, from the religious right, from the healthcare system, from politicians, and from assholes like Eric Rudolph who CHOOSES to use violence to express his hatred for abortion and homosexuality.

26 by 26

As I enter my final weeks of marathon training, the number 26 is constantly looming overhead. Yet when I hear the number 26, my very first, knee-jerk thought is still of abortion. For most people I train with, hearing "26" would immediately conjure up the miles of sweat, pain, and tears that will constitute their marathon. But for me, even after two and a half years of being a runner and training for this marathon goal, 26 still reminds me of the last moment a woman can legally obtain an abortion in Georgia. Why? I lived in Georgia for ten years and was extremely active in pro-choice activism and also worked for two years at an abortion clinic. Our clinic had doctors trained and licensed to provide abortions up until 26 weeks, and we probably saw on average one woman per week who was 26 weeks into her pregnancy.

Training for a marathon is a painfully solo endeavor. Every step that a runner takes is deliberate and intentional. I can make the decision to stop at any moment and it won't affect anyone else. Even when I am running with teammates or friends I have to rely on my own determination to get through a run and to not quit early. In an ideal world pregnancy would also be intentional and chosen freely, but this is often not the case.

The first race I ever trained for was a half-marathon that I completed through Team in Training, a fundraising team for leukemia and lymphoma. Every week at our team runs, we were reminded of why we were fundraising and training, and that our participation would fund treatment for cancer patients and research that would lead to a cure. We met cancer survivors and children currently going through treatment--constant reminders of the parallels between our journey to a race and their journey to a cure. My difficulties were not physical but mental, and I had to constantly talk myself into continuing, convince myself that I could finish. There were many times where I reminded myself that what I was going through was very minor compared to the challenges confronted by people living with cancer. This might seem a bit dramatic, but for some reason it worked. It kept things in perspective for me and made the pain and misery go away. I felt selfish for complaining about running: if that was my biggest complaint then I should consider myself lucky. I started changing my attitude and found myself coming to appreciate what my body could take on. I won't say that my first half-marathon was easy--it certainly was not. For the last five miles I was pretty unhappy and just wanted it to be over.

A combination of factors has led me to enjoy this marathon training much more than last time. I have been a runner for 2.5 years now, so I had a much better base to start from. I also decided to listen to the entire library of Dan Savage's "Savage Love" podcast, which provides humorous sex and dating advice—that definitely makes the time fly by. Most importantly, my outlook has changed. I have seen so many runners get injured and I myself have had bouts of injuries through the years. I appreciate running for what it is in my life right now and never take it for granted. I thank my body for transforming into an experienced runner and responding well to the process of training.

I no longer think about cancer when I run--I think about abortion. A few weeks into my training, the whole connection between 26-week abortion limits in Georgia and 26 miles of running just hit me like a truck. These two things that are both so instrumental in shaping who I am have this undeniable link and I realize I am the woman who I am today because of abortion and running. Abortion has changed my views on the entire world. It brought things onto my radar I never knew about and it allowed me to appreciate my body and the control I have over it and how it is not something to take for granted. Once I could be thankful for that, I was finally able to take on running and marathon training and have it be a meaningful and whole experience. Ever since noticing this pair of twenty-sixes, I have used my runs to think about the challenges we all face in life and how insurmountable they appear. It is rare that people, especially women, can tackle these huge challenges. Too many barriers exist for women who are trying to seek an abortion. The women who are able to terminate a pregnancy at 26 weeks are some of the most determined, resourceful, and dedicated women I have ever seen. Most women who seek abortions are less than ten weeks pregnant, however there are a tiny percentage who choose to terminate later in the second trimester. Their stories and reasons are varied, but they are never decisions made lightly. I I think about what women go through to obtain an abortion and it makes my marathon training seem trite. And to be honest, although I haven't struggled too much this go-round, I know that come October 9th there will be times I want to quit. I know myself pretty well and I can't imagine that I will give up, but that option will be there constantly dangling in front of me.

Women seeking abortions often give up. Not for lack of trying. They simply can't get the money together, can't get time off of work, can't find an adult to serve as their driver, can't find childcare, their insurance denies them coverage at the last minute, or they are a minor and can't get a parent's permission. There are dozens of other reasons. These women end up with an unwanted child. There are just too many things going against them. For these women it is not about attitude or determination, rather it is institutional barriers preventing them from controlling their own bodies. When I think about all the women who can not obtain an abortion due to cost, or timing or the inability to find childcare for their existing children it is really utterly depressing. And then I think about how blessed I am to have such control over my own body. I feel blessed and then I feel shitty right after. I have the luxury of training for a marathon and not worrying about having an unwanted child.