Our bodies on the ballots

When we launched UPLIFT Action, it was a sacred declaration that our bodies are worthy of protection and love.  We reminded ourselves that the movements for LGBTQ+ Justice, Gender Justice, and Reproductive Justice are all rooted in a deep reverence for every person’s right and access to bodily autonomy.  We celebrated that our communities are so much stronger and more joyous when we resist together, create for and with each other, and refuse to let anyone convince us that only one of us can win at a time.  

Tuesday night, we experienced the complex mix of joy, relief, and anguish that comes from faithfully upholding the truth that our liberation is necessarily collective.  Our bodies - our worth -  were on the ballot in several ways.  From statewide propositions preserving or denying the right to reproductive autonomy and freedom, to candidates who have openly declared their hatred for transgender and queer people, to ballot initiatives deciding whether or not slavery should still be allowed in prisons - this midterm election both buoyed and attacked our shared struggles for our bodies and lives.

We also know that this year is by no means the first time the sacred right to bodily autonomy, and the inherent right to be seen and treated as human, has been on the ballot.  What we are witnessing this year is inextricably tied to a centuries-long system and collection of structures designed explicitly to control and criminalize black and brown bodies, disabled bodies, bodies with addictions and mental illness, femme and female bodies - any bodies that do not “fit” into a colonialist, white supremacist, cisheteropatriarchal, and Christian supremacist definition of what is right or worthy.  Nor is this the first time our bodies - queer, transgender, and/or potentially capable of supporting pregnancy - have been reduced to the pawns of political manipulation and plays for power.

The reality we are surviving and persevering through is that our bodies have always been subject to literal, political, and spiritual policing.  The fullness of humanity has never been fully respected or revered by the laws and institutions we continue to challenge and reshape.  This year’s midterm elections include the latest efforts to deny the sacredness of communities and individuals who challenge a narrow, oppressive, and violently evil ideal of what is good.

But within our centuries-long struggle there is a genuine blessing - our growing presence and power.  As our movement consistently expands our understanding of who is being denied their humanity, we are also expanding our vision of what true bodily autonomy entails.  The collective liberation that our Unitarian Universalist faith tells us is not only possible but necessary offers a nourishing balm that continues to bring more hearts and souls to our movements.

This midterm election, we witnessed how our struggles and visions are capable of bringing us closer to that liberated world our bodies need.  Building on our summer victory in Kansas, pro-choice advocates won decisively in all five state initiatives on abortion.  Michigan, Vermont and California voters embedded reproductive freedom within their state constitutions, while the people of Montana and Kentucky defeated anti-choice measures.  These ongoing, democratically-shaped outcomes protecting the legality of abortion are an undeniable statement that bodily autonomy is majority value.  We as a people are growing in our recognition that the policing of our bodies is a violation of their worth, and are changing our laws and institutions as a result. 

We also witnessed that there is more struggling and visioning ahead.  We know that some of the candidates who have won their races are inciting and codifying violence against transgender and non-binary people, particularly among our youth.  We know that we will continue to face those values that are so counter to our understanding of welcome and care, and that it will at times be exhausting and terrifying.  But we also know that our shared struggle, our faithful vision, will continue to grow in power and numbers as it always has.

As my colleague, UU the Vote Campaign Manager JaZahn Hicks recently wrote: “As we have seen so clearly time and time again, there is value in the work of faithful organizing. We are not tied to a radical political ideology but an ideology of radical love and faith. [Our work] has always been prophetic and not partisan.”

Let’s bask in this radical love and faith, beloveds, so we are strengthened, supported, and inspired to remember that our – and every – body is sacred.

In faith and solidarity,

Rev. Ranwa Hammamy, Congregational Justice Organizer

Side With Love