QUICKIES 02/27/2012

Oklahoma state Senator Constance Johnson introduced an amendment to a “personhood bill” – one that would give personhood rights to zygotes – that would make any deposition of semen outside of a vagina “an action against an unborn child.”  It’s great to see women fighting back with their own satirical attacks on the rampant Onanism in America today.

In a case that tests the limits of hate-crime legislation, two women charged with beating a gay man are using the fact that they are lesbians as a defense.  The ACLU lawyer representing the victim, Sarah Wunsch, however, points out that: “Someone who is Jewish can be anti-Semitic[.]  The mere fact that someone is a member of the same class doesn’t mean they could not be motivated by hatred for their very own group.”

Thomas Paige McBree discusses his experience as a transman using a public restroom at a truckstop, focusing on the ambient fear of violence that pervades his experience in male spaces and the surprise and relief that comes from realizing that the other man in the room is caring for his young son.

RH Reality Check discusses how absurd it is that Santorum opposes health insurance companies’ covering prenatal testing.  The logic is that testing to see if the fetus is healthy might mean learning the fetus is not healthy, which could then lead a woman to terminate the unhealthy (and perhaps, doomed to a short, miserable life of pain and disability) fetus.  Allegedly, this is out of his deep concern for babies, and not at all related to his championing of the god-given right of rapists to impregnate women to produce their heirs.

Featured image is the file photo we have of Rick Santorum, taken from here.