‘It’s Complicated’: LGBTQ Folks Weigh-In On Abortion Rights
How can people be expected to make such a critical choice without their communities’ support? We exist both together and apart.
Last year, circa the anniversary of Roe v. Wade, I had an idea for a piece that would explore how LGBTQ folks think about abortion. I wanted to talk to pro-lifers, pro-choicers, and everyone in between. I wanted to hear real human voices talking about what is, by all accounts, a contentious and polarizing issue in American politics.
The question of abortion rights gets flattened in a media that demands that we choose sides. But the answers I got were round. They were rich like earth— cavernous, and teeming with the variety and complexity of human experience. I spent a good amount of time reading answers from and speaking with strangers and friends about their lives, ideas, feelings, and opinions. Every message or phone call filled me with a sense of gravity.
As my pile of answers grew, it became clear that this is not a binary issue. And how can it be? The matter at hand is the reorganization of one’s entire insides—and outsides for that matter—for the rest of one’s life.
Pregnancy is a huge deal. Parenting is a huge deal. And no…
