Politicians, please stay out of my bedroom: Nevertheless She Persisted

“Everyone has a right to follow a faith of their choosing, or not, but not when that faith is used to hurt another. Gay rights trump religious rights. Every single time. You’re entitled to your opinion but if it harms another person based on who they love, what they look like, or their abilities, you actually aren’t entitled to your opinion any longer because you’re breaking the law. Likewise, women’s rights, which includes abortion, sexual education, and tailored health care trumps religion. Every single time. It doesn’t always but it certainly should.”

This was a hard post to write for many reason: Baby Sideburns

“I’m scared to talk about this subject here. Really scared to even mention it. It’s so heated and honestly I don’t want to add any fuel to the fire because here’s the thing, I get both sides of the argument. There are so many other topics that I don’t understand one side or the other. Like I don’t understand how you can ignore the dire climate issues, and I don’t understand how you can’t accept a few common-sense gun laws… 

But when it comes to abortion, I actually do see both sides of the argument.”

LGBTQ History Needs To Be Part Of Every School’s Curriculum: Amber Leventry, Scary Mommy

“SPOILER ALERT: Your kids have been learning about queer folks for a long time. There are plenty of closeted and unconfirmed LGBTQIA+ people already in your child’s text books. Sally Ride, Eleanor Roosevelt, Leonardo Da Vinci, Steve Jobs—okay that last one wasn’t really unconfirmed, but you can thank a queer (Jobs’ business partner, Tim Cook) for giving you that smart phone in your and your kid’s pocket. Anyway, the protest was started because—gasp—we are showing our students that LGBTQ people deserve respect and credit too.”

Why Donald Trump’s Abortion Views Won’t Help People With Disabilities: The Mighty

“Like many — but far from all — people with disabilities, I am deeply dismayed at the behavior of the new President of the United States, Donald Trump. In the few days since he has taken office, his administration has deleted government sites on topics crucial to my identity and life, including disability pages, and proposed several changes that could take away my ability to work and live independently. Frankly, I am terrified. But I’ve also been left wondering: why did so many people with disabilities or whose loved ones have disabilities vote for him, despite his various proposals that could reduce or eliminate services we need?”

A Mom Makes Her Case for the Equality Act: Advocate.com

“In early 2015, I considered myself open-minded. I had a teenage child who had recently come out as gay, so I was all-in on being supportive. Nearly halfway through that year, however, my child came out as transgender, and suddenly, I had a lot to learn.

At that time, I had a vague idea of what it meant to be transgender. I knew it was the “T” in “LGBTQ,” and I knew it was about gender identity, not sexual orientation. But beyond that, it was a topic that simply hadn’t affected me before…I explored studies large and small and lost myself in the statistics: 1.4 million adults in the U.S. are trans. Almost three percent of teenagers in the U.S. are trans. That means there are more trans kids than red-haired kids or green-eyed kids, which clock in at about two percent of the population each.”