I will be examining how the LGBTQIA+ community has contributed to the memory surrounding Roe v. Wade noting the decades long advocacy for reproductive rights and access to abortion rights regardless of gender. LGBTQIA+ individuals face unique challenges when it comes to reproductive healthcare which comes in the form of discrimination from healthcare dependent on practice and state as well as discerning what affordable care in the context of getting gender-affirming care or needs pertaining to sexual health/orientation. LGBTQIA have critical in the fight for reproductive justice through distributing contraception, comprehensive sex education and so forth. However, in my examination, I will focus on how these ongoing queer demonstrations have been largely ignored or censored in mainstream political media/discourse.
Roe. V Wade was a landmark case in American history that helped pave the way for reproductive rights and bodily autonomy. However, unbeknownst to the American masses, the memory surrounding the case and its significance has been largely influenced by LGBTQIA+ community. This community has played a critical role in ensuring that the case remains a significant part in our nation’s history even after it was overturned. Despite their contributions, the memory of the LGBTQIA+ community’s impact on the case has been largely ignored by society out of shame and fear.
The community has contributed to the memory in several ways. Firstly, the community has been actively involved in the fight for reproductive rights. Many LGBTQIA+ identifying individuals have personal experiences with gender discrimination and oppression, and they understand the importance of bodily autonomy and the right to make decisions about one’s own body. This is especially true in a time in which healthcare providers have displayed gender discrimination in distributing gender-affirming care. As a result, they have been strong proponents as well as allies in the fight for reproductive rights.
Additionally, the LGBTQIA+ community has played a key role in providing resources and support for people seeking abortions. Many LGBTQIA+ organizations have provided financial assistance, transportation, and other resources to help people get access to abortion services long before and notably after the overturning of Roe v. Wade. This support has been especially crucial in ensuring people have access to safe and legal abortions. This is important for the reason that most areas and states have begun to have abortion access that is limited or restricted.
Furthermore, the community has also been instrumental in advocating for the rights of their own individual who seek abortion services. Reproductive rights and LGBTQIA+ rights are not mutually exclusive but rather inextricably linked. As I mentioned before, many LGBTQIA+ individuals have faced discrimination and stigma when seeking reproductive healthcare which includes but is not limited to abortion services. The community has worked to address these issues by advocating for the inclusion of LGBTQIA+ individuals in reproductive health care policies and fighting against discrimination.
Despite the significant contributions of the community to the memory surrounding Roe v. Wade, their impact is chosen to be ignored by the broader American society. This can be attributed to a variety of factors, including homophobia, transphobia, and a lack of understanding within religious and moral circles. It all boils down to a lack of understanding of how intersectional the issue is in the context of reproductive and queer rights.
Research has shown that discrimination against LGBTQIA+ individuals is still prevalent in healthcare settings. A study published in the Journal of Women’s health found that queer and gender-non-conforming individuals who seek reproductive healthcare services are more likely to face discrimination and stigma are more likely to face discrimination and stigma than their heterosexual and cisgender counterparts. This discrimination can lead to feelings of shame, fear, and isolation, and can make it more difficult for members of the community to seek out or access the care they need.
As if that is not enough, the impact of the LGBTQIA+ community on the memory surrounding Roe v. Wade has been largely ignored in American mainstream media and education. A study published in the Journal of LGBT Youth found that queer history is often left out of history textbooks and curriculums despite significant contributions of the community to American history. For instance, Carmen Vasquez was a significant queer Latinx-American activist that discussed how gay and lesbian people were discriminated against on the basis of access to fertility treatments. This lack of representation and access to care perpetuates a deliberate erasure of queer individuals not only visually but physically too.
Additionally, the community faces further erasure within the reproductive rights movement itself. A study published in the Journal of Gay & Lesbian Social Services found that many reproductive rights organizations do not actively seek out the involvement of LGBTQIA+ individuals or address their unique needs and experiences adequately, prioritizing cisgender and heterosexual women instead. This lack of inclusion can further marginalize a community that is already disregarded and limits their ability to contribute to the movement.
In conclusion, the LGBTQIA+ community has played a significant role in the memory surrounding Roe v. Wade, even after the landmark case was overturned. Their contributions have included activism, support for people of all sexual and gender orientations seeking abortions, and advocacy for the rights of queer individuals who seek reproductive healthcare services themselves. Despite their impact, however, the community’s contributions has continued to be largely ignored.
Works Cited
Anderson, Kelly. “LGBT Reproductive Rights: An Interview with Carmen Vazquez.” off our backs, vol. 36, no. 4, 2005, pp. 44-47.
Ball, Arnetha F., and Cynthia A. Tyson, editors. Studying Diversity in Teacher Education. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2011.
“Not Up for Debate: LGBTQ People Need and Deserve Tailored Sexual and Reproductive Health Care.” Guttmacher Institute, 16 November 2020, https://www.guttmacher.org/article/2020/11/not-debate-lgbtq-people-need-and-deserve-tailored-sexual-and-reproductive-health. Accessed 14 April 2023.“
Queering Reproductive Health, Rights & Justice.” National LGBTQ Task Force, https://www.thetaskforce.org/reproductive-justice/. Accessed 14 April 2023.
This article was fascinating and informative, while I had previous knowledge of the LGBT+ community’s ties to the pro-choice movement, I did not know of the extensive advocacy they contributed. You make a great point about a lack of inclusion in healthcare as well—I wonder if this is an example of partial collective memory directly impacting the well-being of citizens? Often, collective memory seems abstract, but here we see a case where the dominance of exclusionary narratives has a tangible negative impact on entire communities.
In terms of the pro-choice movement itself in the wake of the overturning of Roe, I think it would be extremely beneficial to include more LGBT+ perspectives in their campaigning. As you mentioned, these communities have been largely ignored, but their experiences bring a unique argument for why abortion should remain a protected right in America, as advocates of bodily autonomy and equal healthcare. I’m also now curious to know about the historical advocacy of LGBT+ communities in the pro-choice movement during the 1960s and 1970s, and if any specific records of their contributions are available, as they might illustrate how instrumental the community was to the movement and the argument for abortion access.
The exclusionary nature of cultural memory surrounding who was affected the distribution and lack of access to abortions is still an incredibly prominent as highlighted in your article. Despite being so intimately interconnected with the pro-choice movement, they have essentially been written out of the history of abortion. This reminds me a lot of the multiple cases we have talked about in class of women being left out of history, which adds a multilayered effect of erasure in memory. Trans women and queer individuals are left out of the collective memory of abortion that chooses to focus on cisgender women. Multiple layers of erasure obscure multiple truths that have real life implications on health and individual rights. This kind of memory practice illegitimates the memory processes that would other wise include the excluded party, even though they have such a huge role in the formation of that memory.
I made a typo in my post and we can’t edit comments on WordPress so I’m just going to correct it here, it should be “trans men” instead of “trans women”!
As a member of the LGBTQIA+ community, I found your post especially interesting! I agree that feminism and LGBTQIA+ activism have often been linked together. I also like how you noted that the latter has often been forgotten (no doubt in some effort to sanitize the anti-abortion movement. It is always interesting to see what is forgotten and what is remembered, as that reveals the values that were held at the time, or at least, it hints at them. I also think that planned parenthood as an constitutions links feminist and LGBTQIA+ communities in a material way.
Thanks for posting this! You’ve found a gap in collective memory and thoughtfully examined why that gap exists. It’s interesting that the LGBTQIA+ community have been left out of the reproductive rights movement. I wonder if the focus on heterosexual and cisgender women comes from an attempt to make reproductive rights issues more “palatable” to a collective audience. Leaving LGBTQIA+ people out means only that they face more stigma than their cishet peers.
This post was really informative and re-established the narrative of abortion in the US. The partiality of memory is present even in ongoing events. The cultural forgetting of groups that do not fit the “ideal American narrative” are omitted even as they are occurring. This erasure not only discredits the LGBTQIA+’s contributions but also their struggles in the fight for reproductive rights. The fight for abortion is much larger than it seems; and I think it is interesting to point out how being more inclusive can potentially power/unify the movement even further.
This is so important! Historical erasure can be hard to find especially because a lot of people consider the LGBTQIA+ community to be a “modern” community when really the community has been established for years. Erasure and exclusion is still occurring, one of the most prominent recent examples I can think of is the language surrounding abortion. Many people talk about women’s rights with the subject of abortion, and while the majority of people who seek abortions are women identifying, there are non women identifying people who seek abortions, but when inclusive language is used, there is significant backlash and the point of the article or study or media is lost due to prejudice.