Walk a Mile

The Precedent

Just nineteen years ago, Ohio’s Secretary of State Ken Blackwell pressed a state constitutional amendment onto the ballot. The Amendment guaranteed that marriage in the state would only be between a man and a woman.  it wasn’t even a big debate in the state before Blackwell’s amendment.  But there it was, a key issue on the November 2004 ballot.

Why put an extraneous amendment on the ballot?  His purpose was to increase the Republican voter turnout.  The goal:  to defeat Democrat John Kerry for the Presidency and secure the state for incumbent George W Bush.  Folks might not come out to vote for Bush, but they’d show up to keep gays from marrying.   And it worked – Bush won by 119,000 votes, 51% to Kerry’s 49%.  (Flip Ohio’s twenty electoral votes to Kerry, and he wins the Presidency).  Ohio’s Constitution now banned same-sex marriage.  And that stood as law until 2015 when a Cincinnatian, James Obergefell, won the right for same sex marriage nationwide in the US Supreme Court (Obergefell v Hodges). 

Standing on Children

Today there is a national discussion about transgendered kids in sports.  But let’s start with reality. 300,000 kids under eighteen identify as transgendered nationally (Williams).  That’s out of almost 21.5 million kids, 1.4%.  In Ohio, 350,000 kids participate in high school sports.  Last year, six, just six, transgendered kids participated in girls’ sports.  That’s .002%.    And over the last eight years, there was a total of nineteen (10 middle school, 9 high school) participating in girls’ sports.  (By the way, no one seems concerned about transgendered kids participating in boys sports).  

So we have a huge national conversation about an extremely small number of kids, struggling with gender identity:  Why?

The Ken Blackwell strategy that worked so well in 2004 set the precedent.  In order to turnout the radical right’s voters, politicians have to keep generating “energy” in the electorate.  They create issues built on the struggle of a very few to “gin-up” their base.  It’s a “straw man” issue, a set-up, to drive their voters to the polls.  It’s happening in “Red” states like Ohio, but petitions to put anti-trans amendments on the ballot are circulating in California as well.

As part of their argument, they want to restrict how doctors medically treat children.  They want to “protect” children from medical treatments that delay puberty.  The Republican-Right, the party of “parent choice” in so many other areas, are dead set against parents choosing what’s right for their trans-child.  Many states are restricting the use of drugs to support the child’s gender decisions, regardless of what parents want.

Using Tragedy

Republicans are doing the same with the abortion issue.  In the Milwaukee Republican debates last week, we heard it from candidate after candidate. Democrats are “…in favor of abortion up to birth”.  That’s simply not true. Here’s the facts.

• 91% of abortions occur at or before 13 weeks of gestation
• 7.7% of abortions occur between 14 and 20 weeks of gestation
• 1.0% of abortions occur after 21 weeks of gestation 
• .02% of abortions occur after 26 weeks of gestation (320 to 600 cases a year) (KFF).

Under the now overruled Roe v Wade decision, states retained the right to regulate abortion after “fetal viability”, between 22 and 25 weeks of gestation.  The statistics show that there are very few abortions after that time.  Anecdotal evidence demonstrates, that those truly later abortions are tragic and devastating to the parents.  They have prepared for a child, and find out that the fetus has a fatal defect, or that the mother will lose their life if they carry to term.  There’s little “choice” in the decision, just sadness.

Just for Votes

But like the six transgendered kids in Ohio high school sports, the Republican agenda is using those few abortion cases to press for a total abortion ban.  They are taking advantage of the tragedy of late abortions, or the emotional turmoil of a transgendered child, to gain political “points”.  

There’s an early 1970’s song by Joe South, sung famously by Elvis – “Walk a Mile in My Shoes”.  The Republican-Right is taking folks in the toughest situations, and instead of walking in their shoes, their stepping on their backs.  It’s all just for votes.