The Clown Car Has Left the Building

The clown car has loaded up and left the Capitol, but not before shutting down yet another truly bizarre, conflicting, and disturbing session. After looking at this year’s scorecard, I can only wonder why women aren’t leaving Utah by the busload.

The misogyny of the Utah Legislature is not only embarrassing but an insult to women. Elective abortions are illegal except in very narrow, specific instances. Of course, the law cannot be enacted unless Roe v. Wade is overturned by the U.S. Supreme Court, but the legislative theocracy did what it was ordered to do.

While I do not want to open that can of worms, the debate about abortion in this space today, I will say that regardless of individual beliefs, it is a women’s rights issue and not something to be decided by a self-righteous body of governance that preaches a certain moral responsibility from one side of its mouth, but neglects it on the other. Especially when legislated by vindictive old white men. By God, if they could get pregnant we’d see just how ceremoniously moral they would be about abortion.

How consistent is it, though, for the Legislature to rule that a woman cannot terminate a pregnancy then go on to defeat a bill that would have provided contraceptives to low-income people 18 and older? How can the Legislature justify it when it seesawed precipitously before finally passing a bill that would expand the free school breakfast program for needy kids?

I thought Utah was supposedly one of the most kid-friendly states in the Union. Most unwanted pregnancies involve the poor. Why force them to give birth to a child they simply cannot afford? Besides, if you truly are a child advocate, you would be adamant that poor kids receive nutritious meals, are well-educated and given a safe environment. It is inconsistent and an outrage, to think otherwise. I guess morality really isn’t at the core of the Legislature as it also beat down a measure that would have required universal background checks of gun purchasers, which would have saved countless lives.

Less than a third of the funding requested to enhance affordable housing projects was approved, meaning that the working poor, are still straddling the line between solvency and despair on a weekly basis.

Polygamy was decriminalized, opening the door to even more abuses of women and children. Look, we all can pretty much agree that what goes on between consenting adults behind closed doors is their business, but when unwilling women and children are being abused in the name of God, none of that matters.

We hear a lot about how much our teachers give, with little return. We have some truly great programs that produce outstanding teachers, but guess what, the best and brightest move out of state where they can make substantially more money. A bill that would have allowed a tax credit for the money teachers put out of their own pockets for classroom necessities was shot down, giving little incentive to the best and brightest to find jobs in their own communities.

And, a proposal for Utah to ratify the Equal Rights Amendment was also shot down because, well, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said so and has remained rigidly against the ERA since it was first proposed.

Yeah, if I was a woman, I’d certainly want to find my proper place in this chauvinistic state. Not.

I have kept close tabs on the Legislature for 25 years now and my disdain is deep-rooted, based on funky, bizarre liquor laws to an ongoing, fruitless attempt to legislate a morality espoused by the LDS Church. I’ve seen good, solid voter initiatives ripped up and tossed aside. I have seen extreme disrespect for cultures that stray from the ever-so-narrow line of the Utah culture, from the bad old days when the Legislature convened on the National Holiday of Martin Luther King Jr. Day to flat-out disrespect of women when it comes to wages, rights, and lifestyle.

One of the most egregious examples of that behavior came to this session when a bill was introduced that would have required women seeking an abortion to submit to a transvaginal ultrasound to see the evolving fetus or to listen to a heartbeat, if audible. It would have required a medically unnecessary invasion of their bodies. It was so outrageous that every woman in the Utah Senate – there are only six – walked out of the chamber. This wasn’t a partisan thing as the women represented both parties. Believe me, finding a bipartisan agreement on anything in one of the reddest states in the Union is miraculous. That these women found the strength to stand up to this corrupt theocracy is encouraging.

There is a duality at play in Utah that surfaces as unimaginable hypocrisy.
The claim is all about reverence, love, salvation, but the reality is judgmentalism, distrust, confusion.

Save the babies, but don’t properly care for them upon arrival.

Support our kids, but don’t provide sufficiently for their mental, physical, or educational growth.
Support the families, but don’t go out of your way to help the young people, the poor, the disadvantaged, the elderly live more satisfactory lives.

We talk the big talk about treating everybody equally, except it doesn’t really work out that way, especially if you happen to be a person of color, a person of a different faith, a member of the LGBTQ community, a woman. I know what it’s like to be an aging liberal hippie in Utah, I can only imagine what it must be like if you happen to be a Mexican lesbian atheist with liberal political leanings.

The Legislature is supposed to work for all of us, is supposed to take care of all of us, is supposed to protect all of us, but it doesn’t.

There is a fix, of course, but that would require people to actually vote these guys out of the office and infuse it with new, progressive blood that is not beholden to any specific group, whether professional or religious.

Hopefully, these folks have done all the damage they intend to do this year and we won’t have to deal with them until next year after the election.

And, hopefully, come November, voters come to their senses and embrace some real changes, instead of the synthetic flop we have roaming the Capitol these days.