Overturning Roe would also devastate LGBTQIA+ community
This year marks the 49th anniversary of Roe v. Wade and it is no coincidence that there is currently much discourse about the potential for the Supreme Court to overturn this decision. While Roe most distinctly affects abortion rights, there are in fact many communities who stand to lose ground in their fight for civil rights. One of the most prominent groups at risk is the LGBTQIA+ community.
Roe v. Wade was the first case that determined all people have a right to privacy. We are not guaranteed this right to privacy through the constitution.
This decision opened the door for other cases, such as Lawrence v. Texas in 2003, which determined any laws banning sodomy or consensual sexual acts between partners to be unconstitutional. This was a huge win for the LGBTQIA+ community! Prior to this, sodomy laws could be used to discriminate and prosecute against queer individuals for consensual acts in their own private lives. Roe laid the groundwork for Lawrence v. Texas and other decisions setting the precedent, and establishing that a person can make their own private choices about their life, and that the government has no right with which to interfere. If Roe is overturned, there could be damning effects on the LGBTQIA+ community.
Following the precedents set by Roe v. Wade and Lawrence v. Texas, came what many people in the queer community consider their biggest win yet: Obergefell v. Hodges, 2015. In that decision the Supreme Court ruled that two people can marry each other legally, regardless of their gender, based on the precedent establishing every citizen’s basic right to privacy in their personal lives. While multiple states had by this time passed laws allowing same-sex marriage, having the Supreme Court protect this right federally was a huge step towards equality.
So what happens if Roe v. Wade is overturned? Aside from abortion care coming under even further direct attack in some states, the LGBTQIA+ community faces losing the rights they’ve fought so hard to win. Simply put, if you take away the precedent Roe v. Wade, then the leg that each subsequent case stands on can be briskly swept out from under it. If we don’t have a right to privacy and to live our lives within the security established by that privacy, then that negates the precedent set for consensual relations and legally recognizing the relationships of LGBTQIA+ people. The reality of the impact of overturning Roe is devastating.
Even without the impending dismantling of Roe, LGBTQIA+ individuals were already seeing their rights curtailed. Take a look at how the previous administration treated transgender and gender nonconforming individuals who were literally just trying to exist without being killed for being who they are. This country still treats them poorly, even under a new administration that is trying to rectify some of the damage done. Roe on the verge of being overturned means queer rights are on the verge of being rescinded as well. Justice Sotomayor herself has warned that overturning Roe would likely open the door to challenging other civil rights, costing the LGBTQIA+ community many of their hard won rights. It’s beyond an issue of equality.
As a Black queer woman born in the 1980s, I have never been afforded my full civil rights. Moreover, my civil rights and bodily autonomy are continually being challenged and picked apart under the law.
Reproductive health care rights and LGBTQIA+ rights are inextricably connected. The loss of one opens the door to more loss for a community who deserves much more.
Heather Smith is a policy fellow for Bold Futures.
This article originally appeared on Las Cruces Sun-News: Overturning Roe would also devastate LGBTQIA+ community
