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The Third Christian Right (2018-2030)

Sat 24 Feb 2007 In: Comment

About a decade from now, let's assume that human parthenogenesis becomes a reality, and women can reproduce without the addition of sperm to ova. What happens for the LGBT community then? Granted, this is a hypothetical step. It might never be possible to achieve human or mammalian parthenogenesis, which is largely restricted to reptiles and insects, but for the sake of argument, and without going into the biotech details, then what happens? This might. The lesbian community is rapt that it is finally possible to achieve women-only reproduction, and campaigns to introduce legislation to integrate that reproductive choice into the existing matrix of lesbian family formation, from assisted reproduction to coparent adoption to all the other minutae of parenting. Unfortunately, one can probably guess what happens next. That's right, them. From its graves, the Christian Right raises its collective heads and screeches that this mode of nonheterosexual/nonspousal human reproduction is "unnatural," so It Should Be Banned. Australia promptly does so, as it is under the throes of a conservative federal government once again. Canada institutes a royal commission, but the biotech research community is onside, and a Charter of Rights and Freedoms decision in British Columbia has found in their favour, so they make a sensible choice, as does the Confederation of Europe. And in New Zealand? What has changed? Well, in the interim decade or so, the number of atheists has grown to encompass half New Zealand's population, while Catholicism has overtaken Anglicanism as the largest Christian denomination, although Buddhism and Wicca have also made considerable gains. A Labour/Green/Maori coalition has held power for the last decade, and is inclined to introduce the new scientific advance, and so, LGBT professionals and lobbyists meet to decide what is to be done. Curiously, the anti-parthenogenesis movement is tiny. This is because New Zealand Catholicism tends to have become quite pluralist since Vatican II, which means that Catholic Right anti-abortion and anti-gay groups are tiny compared to their also diminishing fundamentalist counterparts. As it stands to reason that any anti-parthenogenesis movement would arise from that base, it would probably be from the kids or grandchildren of conservative Catholic activists who share their parents views. And so, battle is joined. The Anti-Parthenogenesis League (APL) makes the usual grandiose threats, and hawks ridiculously enlarged faked CGI photos of alleged teratogenic anomalies from failed parthenogenesis attempts. They're joined by tiny contingents of Australian FINNRAGE members, who have taken to including anti-abortionist opponents of existing reproductive technologies amongst their number, and even publishing their work. One or two angry lesbians challenge the contorted rationale for such collaboration, but there are also one or two gay men, from the US gay anti-abortion group PLAGAL as well. Happily, there aren't enough of them to stop law reform, even though Health Minister Sue Kedgeley is swayed by the FINNRAGE arguments and votes against the bill. The Coalition for Lesbian Reproductive Choice celebrates its victory, although the next few years are spent warding off irate geriatric protestors from APL's successor, Natural Parents Rights, who are foiled due to an electronic locking mechanism devised by Natasha Grant, coparented foster-daughter of one-time Gaynz.Com politics and religious contributor Craig Young. It freezes their walking frames and motorised wheelchairs in motion. And so perishes the Third Christian Right, as did the other two antigay movements of the eighteenth, twentieth and twenty-first centuries before it. Craig Young - 24th February 2007    

Credit: Craig Young

First published: Saturday, 24th February 2007 - 12:00pm

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