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“Pregnancy is Not a Disease”: Birth of an Anti-Contraception Rallying Cry

By Sarah Morice-Brubaker

…notion that pregnancy is not an illness draws, I daresay uneasily, from a number of sources. There’s the classical notion that a thing’s nature is derived from its purpose, and the purpose of female bodies is to bear children. There’s the persistent early modern fear that women, especially privileged white women, are becoming overcivilized and unnatural, not having as many privileged white babies, relying on technology and pain relief, and not fi…

As Hobby Lobby Heads to SCOTUS, Let’s Ditch Kosher Butcher Analogies

By Sarah Posner

…about Hobby Lobby’s RFRA case, pointing out that “protecting the religious freedom of employers under RFRA presents a risk of imposing significant costs on employees.” In any case, as Marty Lederman has explained, the Court has never recognized a religious freedom infringement claim by a for-profit entity: In their scores of briefs, the plaintiffs and their many amici fail to cite a single case, apart from the current contraception coverage litig…

Holy Father, You’re Not Helping: The Problem with the Pope’s Plan to Consecrate Russia and Ukraine to the Immaculate Heart of Mary

By Katherine Kelaidis

…octrine of the Immaculate Conception, which holds that the Virgin Mary was free from Original Sin, is not a doctrine shared between the Catholic and Orthodox churches. In fact, it’s only been an official part of Catholic teaching since 1854. While the Eastern churches agree with Catholics that Mary was free from personal sin, the fact that the Eastern church has never accepted Augustine’s teaching on Original Sin means that the doctrine is superfl…

How the Politics of the 1890s Explain the GOP’s Health Care Woes

By Patricia Miller

…Democrats opposed tariffs both as an imposition on the functioning of the free market and as a way to starve the federal government of revenue so it couldn’t do things like expand infrastructure. Throughout much of the 1880s, the Democrats used a series of procedural maneuvers to hamstring Congress, delaying progress on reforms the country needed in order to keep pace with the industrial revolution and the increasing urbanization and interconnect…

First Gay Bishop? Give Me a Break

By Peter Montgomery

…, partnered bishop, triggered responses still reverberating within the Episcopal Church and the global Anglican Communion—won the Special Jury Award for documentary at the Sundance Film Festival in January. I got to see the film at an event hosted by the Center for American Progress, at which both the bishop and the film’s director, Macky Alston, were present. The movie is compelling storytelling, even for those familiar with the outlines of Robin…

Gambian Voters Reject Anti-Gay Strongman Jammeh; Activists Ponder Trump Impact on LGBT Human Rights; Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…s a member of the European countries that share common values, such as the free movement of people together with their families.” She said she was confident that the European court would consider free movement “a fundamental right” and recognize a husband regardless of the sex of his partner. Opposition to same-sex relationships is often fierce in Romania, where homosexuality was only decriminalized in 2002. Religious groups want the constitution…

Beverly Cleary, Author of the Ramona Series, Understood Children, Shoes, School, Words, and How it Feels to be Heard, or Misunderstood

By Amy Laura Hall

…arted the third grade . . . Grown-ups did not understand that summers were free from grades.” She also catches grown-ups speaking earnest nonsense. Virginia Lee Burton’s 1939 classic Mike Mulligan and the Steam Shovel may be about, as her teacher tells her, “digging the basement of the town hall,” but Ramona knows that her pressing question, namely, “how did Mike Mulligan go to the bathroom when he was digging the basement of the town hall?” stand…

Bloody Religious Conflict on the Way Out?

By Ira Chernus

…t to explain it. Industrial societies need to coordinate the labor of huge numbers of people. They can’t afford to have religious differences played out in the public sphere because that would gum up the works. For the sake of economic efficiency, they have to define religion as a private affair. In your free time, you can be religious (or not) in any way you like, they say in effect. But when you enter the public sphere, you must leave religious…

Morality Police, Jihadists, Religious Competition, Grindr, & Americans Abroad: Global LGBT Recap

By Peter Montgomery

…applied to join eight other Church of Scotland clergy who have joined the Free Church of Scotland. Rev. Roddy MacRae said, “The Church of Scotland often says it is a ‘broad church’, but it has become clear to me that it is not broad enough for Bible-believing Christians.” Meanwhile, as Scotland moves toward a vote on whether to become independent of the United Kingdom, and as polls show pro-independence forces gaining, gay-rights activists debate…

Trump’s Fear and Loathing Won’t Silence The Nation’s Sole LGBT Muslim Organization

By Omar Sarwar

…e very survival of minority communities. As MASGD puts it, “none of us are free until all of us are free.” To get a sense of what motivates MASGD’s activism, particularly in the current political atmosphere, I interviewed four pioneers of the American LGBT Muslim movement: Faisal Alam, Urooj Arshad, Raquel E. Saraswati, and Tynan Power. These leaders are members of MASGD’s Steering Committee, and were gracious enough to discuss with me their appre…