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Monday, January 9, 2006

Virginia Is For Haters

Posted by on January 9 at 10:23 AM

My brother Bill—who takes a keen interest in lesbian issues—just sent me this link.

A bill in the Virginia state legislature would prevent unmarried women from using assisted reproductive technology, including lesbians who frequently use donor insemination to have children. Del. Robert Marshall (R-Manassas), who has also sponsored measures to ban same-sex marriage and strictly limit abortions, pre-filed HB 187 on Jan. 2 for the 2006 state legislative session, which begins Jan. 11.

The measure would forbid medical professionals from providing to unmarried women “certain intervening medical technologyā€¯ that “completely or partially replaces sexual intercourse as the means of conception.ā€¯ The bill provides a list of medical procedures, including “artificial insemination by donorā€¯ and invitro fertilization.

Equality Virginia, the state’s gay political group, denounced the measure as a “direct attack on Virginia’s families…ā€¯

This piece that I wrote for The Stranger in June of 2004 is truer now than it was then:

We’ve reached an odd point in the struggle for gay rights. If a gay man in the United States wants to know what rights he enjoys, he has to ask himself, “Where am I?” The issue of full civil equality for gays and lesbians is dividing the country geographically like no other issue in our history besides slavery. Indeed, it’s hard not to look at one of the “gay rights maps” on the websites of the Human Rights Campaign or Lambda Legal without thinking “slave states and free states.” In some states, we have no rights. We’re non-citizens. In others, we have achieved full civil equality.

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And what about all those callous Murphy Brown style single-mothers... from the sounds of the description, that it would prevent a lot more than just coupled and single lesbians from raising babies. I know the Constitution is having a little difficulty holding ground with the less progressive segments of our population, but come on now people... Live and let live if you don't like my life and my choices, right?

The bill also discriminates against straight, unmarried couples who are having trouble conceiving.

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