Republican Fuckery XIII: TN Marriage Clerks, Walgreens Will Not Sell Abortion Medication and AR Governor Allows Child Labor And Trans Care Malpractice Laws

One of the ways a country’s values can be judged is the legislation.

In Tennessee, a new law may allow marriage clerks to deny licenses based on that person’s beliefs. In short, a public servant (whose salary comes from our tax dollars), can tell a tax-paying citizen that they have no right to marry. If this person was a clergy of a specific faith and was using that as a context, their reasons are understandable (even if one disagrees with that decision). But a clergyperson’s paycheck comes from their congregation and not from the public.

Meanwhile, Walgreens has decided to not sell the abortion pill in twenty states. This is nothing more than a corporation bowing to the wishes of a minority. Granted, the right could accuse the left of the same thing. However, when it comes to medical care (which is what abortion is), that’s another story.

And finally in Arkansas, comes a double whammy from Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders (former mouthpiece from the previous administration). The Youth Hiring Act of 2023 allows children under 16 to work without a permit. We know how this is going to go. Those forced to go to work (instead of school) are poor, immigrants, and people of color. These jobs (as in the past), will likely be dangerous, low-paying, and life-altering.

She also signed a bill that allows anyone who received gender-affirming care as a minor to sue a medical practitioner once they turn 18. Though it will not be enforced until this summer, the statute of limitations is good until that individual turns 33. This is a tactic that Republicans often use. By deputizing the person on the street, they keep their hands clean.

Just another day in America and another reason to vote them all out.

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Rodham Book Review

Life sometimes comes down to a series of choices. But the thing about these choices is that we never know where these choices will lead us.

Curtis Sittenfeld‘s new novel, Rodham, was released back in May. The book asks one basic question: what if Hillary Rodham has not married Bill Clinton? How would her life had turned out?

The book starts out when they are both students at Yale Law School in the 1970’s. Finding a nearly ideal partner in one another, their romantic relationship is on fire. After graduation, Hillary follows Bill back to Arkansas. But instead of marrying him, she ends the relationship.

Over the decades, Bill and Hillary will cross paths as she builds a career in politics and grapples with the same sexism that existed in her youth.

This book is brilliant. Balancing both the known facts and the what if question, Sittenfeld creates a narrative that feels completely organic. I was immediately sucked in and taken through an alternative history that could have happened, had things gone differently.

I absolutely recommend it.