By: Vanessa

In reply to Colleen.

i believe it’s getting worse and worse because it’s so obvious that if romney wins this election, things are going to get very bad for certain groups of people, the lgbt community and women being two groups that come to mind and affect a lot of the people who are part of the autostraddle community, even if not personally then tangentially. it’s really difficult to want to bake cupcakes and hug kittens under a rainbow with people who support a man who will hurt me, my family, and my friends in very real, tangible ways.

my little brother will vote for romney (as i’ve written about, and received mixed reactions) so i fully understand the idea that you cannot always discount someone simply because of their political beliefs and choices. i love my brother and will continue to love him after he votes for romney. HOWEVER, if romney god forbid becomes president of the united states, i will feel very sad and betrayed knowing that my brother “helped” put him in a position to control my life in really harmful ways, and i’d hope that my brother could one day see how selfish and dangerous a vote for romney really is.

in short, i am all about respecting other people’s opinions and such, but when an opinion can essentially be boiled down to, “i support a guy who wants to actively take away your civil rights and deny you equality,” it starts to feel like the person with that opinion doesn’t respect me as a HUMAN, and that makes me less inclined to be understanding to their OPINIONS. like it’s all well and good to get exasperated with the obama supporters who say they want to unfriend romney supporters, or want to distance themselves from people in their lives who support romney, but how about being exasperated with people whose actions will prove that they do not consider my rights to be of any importance? i think when someone is ignoring your rights to exist as a human on this planet you are no longer obligated to respect their opinion.

sorry this got so long. it’s really something i’ve been thinking about a lot. i try to stay out of political “discussions” on facebook because i find they are rarely discussions and are usually just a clusterfuck of shouting and namecalling, but i’ve been having a REALLY hard time following my own rule this election cycle. i really do think it’s because things feel SO personal, it feels like every time someone says they support romney they are looking me square in the eyes and saying, “you do not matter as a human. your rights do not matter. you are not my priority.” so yeah, that’s my two cents.