Bodily autonomy is foundational to the LGBTQ struggle

As we were working on our annual Pride letter at the end of June, word came down that the Supreme Court had overturned Roe v. Wade, gutting reproductive rights across the country. “Justice” Clarence Thomas, in his concurrent opinion, made a case that Griswold, Lawrence, and Obergefell—three cases based on the same foundation of privacy that supported Roe—should be the next to fall.

At Stonewall, we know that our social freedoms as LGBTQ people begin with our being and our bodies. Whether seeking pleasure, expressing who we are, pursuing wholeness, or managing our health in the best ways available to us, having autonomy—that is meaningful decision-making power—over our own bodies is foundational to the LGBTQ struggle.

The attacks on our people and our bodies are rising to the highest level in the land, and we need to do everything we can to protect not only the hard-fought rights we’ve won over the last 50 years, but also the people most at risk if, and frankly as, those rights are dismantled.

Stonewall’s Executive Director, Jarrett Lucas (they/them), recently penned an essay on the inextricable link between reproductive justice and LGBTQ liberation. Check it out here.  

At Stonewall, we listen to our community and support those on the frontlines of the struggle for our rights to self-determination and bodily autonomy. Get to know these incredible organizations, both hard at work fighting for and defending those rights:

National Network of Abortion Funds organizes at the intersections of racial, economic, and reproductive justice to remove financial and logistical barriers to abortion access. Learn more here.

Point of Pride provides trans, gender nonconforming, and non-binary people with life-saving health and wellness services such as binders, shapewear, and funding for gender-affirming medical procedures. Learn more here.