2406
(6 votes, average 5.00 out of 5)
Written by Jamakaya
Feb 24, 2011
The attack on public workers’ collective bargaining rights in Wisconsin and the defunding of Planned Parenthood by Congress should be opposed by all LGBT people of conscience.
Over the past 10 years, Republicans (with help from some Democrats) created big deficits through their unfunded, open-ended attacks on Iraq and Afghanistan and through huge tax cuts for the wealthy. The budget crisis today was provoked by conservatives who are now using it as a pretext to wipe out their political and ideological opponents.
As far back as 1983, the Village Voice published “The New Right’s Campaign to De-Fund the Left,” which outlined a decades-long strategy by corporate-funded conservative think tanks, right-wing organizations, evangelical groups and the GOP to destroy all centers of progressive influence. The targets have been public education, the ACLU, legal service organizations for the poor, labor unions, women’s groups, Planned Parenthood and federal funding for the arts, sciences and community groups. Most of these entities originated in the Progressive era a century ago,
which was itself a response to the income inequality and terrible living and working conditions of the late 19th century.
Grover Norquist, a leading architect of right-wing policy, told The Nation in 2001: “My goal is to cut government in half in 25 years to get it down to the size where we can drown it in the bathtub.” In 2004, he declared: “Rather than negotiate with the teachers’ unions and the trial lawyers and the various leftist interest groups, we intend to break them.”
This campaign has been advanced through massive infusions of capital into right-wing think tanks, state and local front groups and judicial and legislative campaigns. It has been muscled along by the power of right-wing media, which uses wedge issues – including LGBT rights – and divide-and-conquer tactics to turn constituencies against each other and to purvey false and alarmist information. These tactics and distortions have chipped away at the credibility of organized labor and Planned Parenthood.
The valuable work done by Planned Parenthood personnel over the decades, against constant hostility, is one of the most heroic chapters in American history. Criticized for a fraction of its work – providing safe, legal abortions for women who need them – Planned Parenthood has actually become the primary healthcare provider for millions of women. Health and sexuality education, instruction in all forms of birth control, gynecological exams, pre-natal counseling and classes, and testing for pregnancy, cervical cancer and sexually-transmitted diseases are all provided in a
supportive, non-judgmental environment. Services are based on ability to pay, with no one turned away. The gap in services and long-term social and financial costs that will result from de-funding Planned Parenthood is incalculable.
Like all unions, public employee unions provide a means for workers to bargain collectively over wages, benefits and working
conditions. Yes, our taxes pay their wages; we also benefit substantially from the labor of nurses, teachers, game wardens, firefighters, street cleaners and custodians. Why be eager to
go back to the time when public services were provided inconsistently by private vendors
nabbing contracts through patronage and corrupt deals? Civil service reform and public sector unions provided us with order, oversight and honor. Public sector unions were also the first unions to incorporate through their contracts job protections based on sexual orientation and gender identity and benefits for domestic partners.
The LGBT community has had no greater allies through decades of struggle to recognize our rights than Planned Parenthood and organized labor. It is time to stand up for our friends.
Comments