Today, the Senate took time to make important arguments about bodily autonomy. Specifically, if people with uteruses should be allowed to control said uteruses. It seems like the answer here should be simple. Of course people should be allowed to control their own uteruses. But, that’s actually not what the Senate decided.
A central figure in this argument is Montana’s own Senator Steve Daines. Adding to the practice of comparing human women to the animal kingdom, Daines highlighted his particular brand of idiocy by comparing women to…wait for it… sea turtle and eagles. According to Daines, human babies are totally comparable to the eggs laid by sea turtles and eagles. You may be thinking, “Odd. I don’t recall my mother ever laying any eggs.” We at WTF understand your confusion. So, we’ve created a quick guide to help you determine if you’re a sea turtle or an eagle.
Please answer honestly.
1. Did you emerge from the sea? 2. Have you dug a nest using all four flippers? 3. Have you ever laid 100 eggs in one sitting? 4. Did you flee to the ocean after your babies hatched?
This sea turtle was quoted as saying “Fuck The Patriarchy.”
If you answered “Yes” to 2 or more of these questions, you may be a SEA TURTLE. No flippers? Don’t worry. Just answer these next questions to find out more.
1. Do you have the urge to gather sticks, twigs, and moss? 2. Are you perched hundreds of feet up in a tree? 3. Do you catch small prey in your claws? 4. Is your wingspan between 6 – 7.5 feet? 5. Do you have feathers? If any of this checklist rings true, you’ll want to consult your doctor or wildlife veterinarian right away. You may, in fact, be an EAGLE.
Is there a third option? Something whose taxonomy is a little less avian? Perhaps, but honestly you’d likely get more respect from our government if you stuck with being an eagle.
When we decided to start a local blog, I was picturing elections, levies, crime, maybe some local art reviews. I didn’t anticipate getting as micro as discussing my uterus, but here we are. Today, we’re going to talk about my abortion. Some folks reading will call me a murderer and say I’m going to Hell. Honestly, I’ve heard all that before and those threats fall pretty flat when you’re talking to an Atheist. (Notably, those folks also think Queer people are an abomination, and I’ll go to Hell for having sex with women. You just can’t please some people, huh?)
So, let’s get started. Picture it. Somewhere around April or May 2012, I don’t remember the date exactly, but I think I was 23. I was pregnant and I didn’t want to be. I understand plenty of people want to know a little more than that. Was I on birth control? (Nope, had just stopped a 6-year stint as it made me sick). Was I married? (Not at the time, but the father would eventually be my husband). But really, none of that matters. What mattered is that I didn’t want to be pregnant, and I would have gnawed my own arm off if that’s what it took to not be pregnant anymore.
If you haven’t experienced an unwanted pregnancy, it’s easy to downplay the enormity of it. The feeling of an alien object inside your body that doesn’t bring any degree of joy- only panic, desperation, and fear. Pregnancy severely and permanently alters your body. For me, that meant being so incredibly sick and exhausted that I lost 10lbs in a month and could barely summon the energy to go to work.
From the moment I saw that positive test, I knew I wanted an abortion. However, my Catholic roots (although long abandoned when I came out as Queer) made me terrified. I knew I would go through with the abortion, but I fully anticipated feeling all-consuming guilt for the rest of my life. Still, it was better than the alternative.
After several hoops, both financial and medical, I was able to have a medication abortion. This means I was given medication that induced miscarriage. I took the pills, went home, and had a miscarriage alone in the bathroom. It was excruciating physically, and I was in no way prepared for the pain. But as soon as it was over, I was flooded with relief. And that guilt? It never came. Rather than feeling like my life had been permanently altered for the worse, I felt thankful. Thankful to not be pregnant. Thankful to have control over my body again.
Ten years on, and I’ve never questioned my decision for a moment. I still don’t want children, and I was absolutely right not to bring an unwanted child into the world. When talking about my abortion, I often feel compelled to list all the things I’ve accomplished since then. All the reasons why I am worthy of living my own life. But really, I don’t have to prove why my own life is worth saving. The fact is, I would have died rather than stay pregnant. I would have thrown myself down the stairs. I would have gone to a back alley. If that didn’t work, I would have killed myself.
My life is worth more than the possibility of a child. My life is worth more than a clump of cells I passed in the bathroom. My body is my own, and I alone should be making decisions about it. Sex is not just for procreation. For me, it will never be for that purpose. That doesn’t mean I shouldn’t have sex, nor does it mean I should be forced to give birth as a “consequence” for having a sex life.
The idea that a woman owes her body to anything, let alone a zygote or a fetus, is utterly insane. The folks calling me a murderer don’t give a single fuck for babies after they are born. They aren’t supporting universal healthcare, or taking in foster kids, or working to end poverty. They simply want to impose their skewed religious views on all of us, and most of all, they want to exercise control over people with uteruses. As I said, I don’t believe in Hell at all, but if it does exist, it’s not the pro-choice crowd that deserves to burn.
In today’s “Questions I Shouldn’t Have To Ponder” I’m faced with a truly strange situation. After E-city Beat’s bizarre, ill-researched, and oddly sexualized attack on school board candidate Russ Herring, I’m sitting here considering when (if ever) it is appropriate to discuss a political candidate’s penis. Before last week, I’d have easily said “Never. This couldn’t possibly be relevant to a local election.” Yet, after E-city Beat clearly spent significant time staring a Herring’s, well, package, it seems the conversation is at hand. Let’s start with a relevant example. If E-City Beat downloaded a picture of me in a bikini I had shared on my personal Facebook page, we would all regard this as creepy. If they went further and then PUBLISHED that picture, claiming it made me an unfit candidate, we would all recognize that behavior for what it is- sexual harassment. The writer, Phil Fascenda, claims this picture is ill-befitting a candidate for school board. It seems Fascenda’s tune has changed since E-city Beat contributor and city commissioner, Rick Tryon’s inappropriate Facebook posts were discussed in a city commission meeting. Flash back to the City Commission meetings during the Non-Discrimination Ordinance conversations. Members of the commission were presented with a print-out of Rick’s transphobic “joke” he had shared on his page. Rick quickly retorted that this was on his personal facebook page, was merely a joke, and shouldn’t even be brought up. So, if its Rick’s personal page, Fascenda seems to think it is of no consequence, even when it is directly relevant to the question at hand. And now E-City Beat is scouring the personal pages of candidates they don’t like and attempting to find problematic posts. Here’s the thing though- a guy in his shorts (be they boxer or swimwear) is NOT problematic. Its not even inherently sexual. In fact, its only weird because Fascenda and E-City Beat tried to make it weird, claiming that Herring had an erection. Now, 99.9% of the time, it really isn’t okay to make fun of anyone’s penis size. But let’s be clear. Herring in no way has an erection in the photo and its pretty hilarious to try and claim that he does. The fact that the author tries to claim this, well, he’s basically telling on himself here. My takeaway from this desperate attempt at a smear campaign is that the folks at E -City Beat have, well, itty bitty…arguments. As we know, E-City Beat writer and everyone’s least favorite commissioner, Rick Tryon loves to talk about himself in the third person and use various nicknames which surely have never been uttered by anyone but himself. Of course, Tryon is silent about the hypocrisy of this attack by his pal at E-city Beat. I can’t help but assume that if we published anything from his personal face book page Tryon would be outraged. And it makes me wonder if Rick thinks a candidate’s penis size should be a topic of conversation in a political campaign. Although E City Beat likely can’t be held liable for what is clearly a libelous attack, I wonder what responsibility they hold for the slew of utterly false remarks made by readers in the comment section of E-City Beat about Herring as a result of their post?
Lola Sheldon-Galloway, incumbent candidate for HD 22, is once again making wildly inaccurate claims. This time it’s about marijuana. Galloway is urging the County Commission to send recreational marijuana use to the ballot this November. Sheldon-Galloway made unsubstantiated claims that providers could drain the power grid and increase crime on the frontage road. Forgive me if I am suspicious that Lola knows anything about 1) growing weed 2) the power grid and 3) local crime data. Remember, this is the woman who claimed that a woman couldn’t get pregnant from rape, and also sponsored the 20 week abortion ban. She also believes the best approach for addiction is to put people in jail longer. Lola’s lies about marijuana are no surprise. These claims are nothing new. Many Great Falls conservatives continue to treat marijuana as a moral issue while ignoring current medical and scientific understanding. Marijuana-phobia (a term I just invented) is based on ideas that have been long disproven. Whereas Sheldon-Galloway may want you to believe that a single reefer cigarette will ruin your life, that view doesn’t mesh with the current culture. We all know a ton of people that smoke weed. Your doctor. Your lawyer. Maybe not your dentist, but he probably should. Just like we know people who drink alcohol, or smoke cigarettes. If you don’t enjoy, then you can skip the circle. But as adults, we can choose our legal recreational activities, and we already did. 21,747 people voted YES and 17,986 people voted No. The “ayes” have it. Recreational marijuana is legal. We literally already voted for it. There is absolutely no reason to send the question of recreational marijuana back to the ballot. Lola being afraid that the poors will come too near her Sun Prairie mansion is not justification to ignore the will of the voters. We’ve already spoken. We’re already smoking. Rather than waste tax dollars on this conservative temper tantrum, we should be asking our city why the hell they’re leaving a 3% option tax on the table. The party of “fiscal responsibility” needs to update their thinking and quit wasting our money.
When it comes to politics, lots of folks are simply over it. They’re tired of the divisiveness, the rhetoric, and the smarmy out-of-staters posing in their $400 cowboy boots proving they’ve never once stepped in a cow pie. And what does it matter anyway? Every few years, we’re inundated with un-skippable commercials and hordes of flyers that go immediately from our mailbox to the trash. Somebody wins. Somebody loses. And nothing much seems to change as the average Montanan tries to navigate rising bills and stagnant wages.
Yet, one political position affects us year-round. Each month, as we hand over our hard-earned cash to pay our utility bills, we see the work of the Public Service Commission in action. Did your heating bill double this year? That’s more than an unfortunate change in prices. That’s the work, or lackthereof, of the Public Service Commission (PSC).
So, what is the PSC? And why should you care about it? Their website summarizes the PSC as:
“[…] Montana Public Service Commission (PSC) strives to ensure that ratepayers have continued access to utility services that are affordable, reliable, and sustainable for the long-term. In pursuit of this goal, the PSC regulates the rates and service quality for investor owned electric, natural gas, water, waste-water, and legacy telecommunication companies”
Notably, the PSC is not a consumer advocacy group. The PSC website explains, “It’s the PSC’s job to balance the interests of ratepayers who are concerned about utility rate increases, with the need to maintain a financially sound utility that is capable of providing reliable service.”
However, with dramatic price increases during Montana’s coldest months, many are wondering exactly how the interests of us “ratepayers” are really being represented. Perhaps “affordable” means something different to our representative, Randy Pinocci, who currently pulls in about $108,000 per year in his role as PSC Commissioner for District 1 (which includes Cascade County).
While Pinocci’s salary continues to rise, so does the cost of natural gas heating for folks in Great Falls. In November 2021, the PSC noted a coming increase between “47% to 62%.” Link Many of us have already felt the brunt of that steep increase when facing our 2022 heating bills. As election season gears up, we simply can’t afford to ignore the work of the Public Service Commission. So, as I peruse my nearly $200 gas bill this month, I’m forced to wonder: Is Randy Pinocci doing his job?
