I’m pissed off. If you’ve been keeping up with the news lately — which, props to you if you can stomach it — you know that this was quite an eventful summer for American politics. President Biden dropped out of the presidential race to be replaced current Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris — both of whom have made history by doing so. There is, essentially, no precedent for an incumbent dropping out of the presidential race so far along. Although it has been done before, it was not done by a candidate in his 80s, and it goes without saying, I think, that those previous examples had nothing on the viciousness and all-around mess that comes with opposing a Donald Trump presidential ticket.
Amidst that chaos was an assassination attempt on the former President’s life which, in the era of the 24/7 news cycle, was old news in about a week. We live in a time where all news — the good, the bad and the beyond-ugly — is often treated with the same weight.
If you’re scrolling through a social media page that, say, knows you read the news, you’ll have a great time toggling between anxiety, grief, hope, shock, guilt, anger, joy and confusion. It’s everything, all the time, forever. With no start or end, and with every post following essentially the same format, things start to blur until the good news is no longer that uplifting and the bad news is no longer all that shocking.
Long story short, it’s easy for wild stories to slip through the cracks.
One of these stories started in Louisiana in June of this year, though surely Republican Governor Jeff Landry had been stewing on this lawsuit-bait for a while beforehand.
Landry signed into law a bill that will mandate all K-12 schools in Louisiana to display the Ten Commandments in every classroom and in a “large, easily readable font” by 2025, according to The Hill. Operating under the idea that the Ten Commandments is a “historical document” that will “remind students of the foundations of American and Louisiana law,” according to First Liberty Institute counsel Matt Krause, every student in the state will be shown the guidelines of a religion they may or may not follow. Nevermind the fact that, if they had looked at just one more historical document, they would see the contradiction in allowing church and state to mix in this way.
I heard of this story first through social media, which, thanks again to the almighty algorithm, was buried in a slew of other horrifying and tragic events and laws that, ultimately, made this feel small. Yeah, of course this would happen. Could I even be surprised by this?
But then, this month, Landry opened his mouth yet again. Now, he’s not just misguided, he’s a blatant hypocrite, and for that, I’m more annoyed. It’s one thing to force your narrow idea of faith and conservatism into our faces. It’s another to pretend like it’s easy to look away.
At a press conference earlier this month, Landry advised parents who were upset with the displayed Commandments to simply tell their children “not to look at them,” according to The Hill. “Really and truly, I don’t see what the whole big fuss is about,” headded.
I’ll give you a second to spot the irony here, because clearly something isn’t clicking in this governor’s head.
Did you catch it?
At the time of writing, there are 642 anti-trans bills circulating in various states of approval throughout the U.S. at the state and federal levels, according to translegislation.com. Forty-five have been passed so far this year, primarily affecting healthcare and education, banning things like diversity, equity and inclusion offices and requiring patients to reach a certain age before they have access to gender-affirming health care.
Also at the time of writing, there are 14 states that have made abortion illegal, including Louisiana. More states than not have not protected the right to an abortion or have placed strict — or intentionally vague — limits on accessing an abortion.
How dare an elected official not see or acknowledge the irony and the hypocrisy of what he is saying? In a state that has banned abortion and has, like many states, jeopardized the safety of its trans and queer citizens — particularly minors — it’s important to ask: Who gets to “look away”?
You can’t look away from your lack of adequate and equitable health care. You can’t look away from a school that won’t recognize your chosen name but will, in following the law, display the rules of a religion you don’t participate in, loudly and proudly.
If it’s so easy to “look away,” so simple to not make a “fuss” about, then why on your God’s green earth would someone’s genitalia matter to you? Someone’s gender identity and bodily autonomy are something that Landry ought to look away from. With no effect on him or his fellow conservatives, they should consider taking his advice.