Big Day for Equality Stateside

Standing With Wendy This Morning

So this morning I logged on to Twitter to find a lot of my international follows using the #standwithwendy tag on their posts. I was intrigued and scroll down my feed to look at previous posts. I didn't know exactly what had gone down in those previous hours in Texas, but I did know there was something more that the headlines were reporting and a massive show of feminist solidarity. BBC Breaking prematurely said a bill severely restricting abortion rights in the state had passed, the passionate women and men on Twitter said otherwise. This article from the Guardian gives a bit more insight into what happened.

It goes beyond this one event though. I saw a statistic today that there's been one piece of legislation about mens bodies in something like 10 years in the US, but around 460 this year alone about women's. These figures might not be right but the dramatic inequality is.

The difficult discussion of the intersection of faith and abortion issues is very well handled in this blog by Tracy in response to the events in Texas. My view? You restrict access to abortion, and women get illegal abortions in unsafe conditions that ultimately mean more deaths. Nobody wins in that situation. We need to provide facilities and services that mean women can be supported to make the decision that they feel is right for them. They need information, mental health support, and medical services provided in a clean a safe environment where they don't feel judged.

Down With DoMA This Afternoon

Fast forward to this afternoon, and again my Twitter errupted. It hadn't occured to me that the US Supreme Court was declaring their verdict on the Defense of Marriage Act (DoMA) today until I was informed by @stonewall that a decision was imminent.

For those not as entwined in the equal marriage laws of the US as I am, DoMA is a piece of legislation that became law in 1997 stating that federally in the USA marriage is only recognised as the union of one man with one woman. In a country where around a quarter of states now recognise same sex marriages this denied such couples from receiving federal benefits and denied multi-national same sex couples (including myself and my partner) immigration rights.

Outside UNHQ in 2011

Then the news came that the Supreme Court has ruled DoMA to be unconstitutional - opening up federal benefits to all couples whose marriage is recognised by their state. This is particularly exciting news for me, because it means that one day I will be able to live and work in my partners home country should we so choose. I have a dream to work for the UN at some point in my life, having the right to work in the US (as the home of UNHQ) would bring that a little bit closer.

 This Evening?

I'm blogging. There's an interesting media sexism event I'm trying to follow on Twitter (#MediaSexism). And I'm skyping my partner as we await news on her visa application to join me in the UK. The Atlantic Ocean is both difficult and easy to cross at the same time.