Florida’s attorney general is one among many from red states across the country threatening Maine with legal action as the New England state considers a shield law that would protect those seeking abortions and health care from criminal repercussions in Florida.
As more Republican states have taken action to limit or altogether ban abortion access and transgender health care, Democratic Party-led states see shield laws as a way to protect those seeking those services away from home, according to according to the Guttmacher Institute, an abortion rights advocacy group.
Im going to use this comment to explain this idea to people. Im a lefty too and I grew up almost just like you. Whenever I try to explain this , it always comes out like I’m an apologist for all the crappy stuff they do and it makes people think I’m a closeted conservative. I have never once seen this explained so perfectly and succinctly. Thanks for sharing, really
Thank you very much!
Yeah, I’ve run into that plenty myself. Hell, I’m a woman and I have a wife, and I was once accused of being homophobic… as I was trying to explain why I was happy about living thousands of kilometers from my family.
It really bugs me when people accuse people like my grandparents of being “hateful.” If my grandparents see that, they’ll just see more “proof” that left wingers have no idea what they’re talking about.
I can’t do anything to fix the issues on the conservative side of the fence - I really wish I could - but I can hopefully help on my side of the fence, with fostering better understanding and communication.
My break from conservative thinking was… uh… perhaps best described as a violent psychological event. I went from thinking we were the good guys, to maybe getting some things wrong, to suddenly realizing I’d been unknowingly on the side of evil my whole life. Meeting someone who was gay and hearing his story, about the abuse he took from people who acted exactly as I’d been taught to… Stars above, that ripped out my heart.
And if I hadn’t already had my beliefs cracking and under pressure, I’d have blown off his story as pure manipulation.
It’s a whole thing, for me. I can only hope for reconciliation of some kind. My family members aren’t really evil people - they mean well, even if they only consider people who are straight, white, and Christian to be fully people.
But calling them things they aren’t won’t ever get them to listen.
Not that I know what would get them to listen, beyond convincing their pastor of things…