Fighting the Power

tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8839129284985526376.post-62422441126543107582008-02-05T19:36:00.000-08:002008-02-06T09:00:42.394-08:00Fighting the PowerToday, at the urging of a good friend, I testified at the State House before the House Corporations Committee on House Bill 7293, which would expand Rhode Island's infertility coverage to include lesbians and single women. Unlike many states in the country, infertility treatment is a state-mandated benefit in Rhode Island, which means that insurance companies must pay the costs of medical interventions necessary to treat infertility. If, that is, you are a heterosexually married woman. Now, we have a lot of problems in the world, and in the grand scheme of things, access to fertility treatment is not at the top of the priority list. Quite frankly, I think that a lack of universal health care in this country is a much bigger problem. However, this issue of who is given access to reproductive technologies and who isn't lays bare the ways in which family-making has become a privilege of class and sexual orientation. The governor, in his veto of this bill last year, wrote: <blockquote>This legislation, by removing the requirement that women be married, forces health insurance companies to subsidize out-of-wedlock births. As a matter of public policy, the state should be encouraging the birth of children to two-parent families, not the reverse.</blockquote> Well thanks, Gov. Now I approach our republican leadership with a healthy dose of cynicism, but it's hard not to feel stung by so clear an insult. What the governor is saying, in no uncertain terms, is that my family is not worth paying for. And of course, that makes me wonder what's next. Indeed, why provide maternity benefits at all for unmarried women? Indeed, maybe we should just allow the state to pay for their birth control and abortions. Oh, that's right, the governor doesn't believe in those things either. Well that's okay; why have sex outside of marriage anyway? Oops, you queers can't get married? Hmm, guess it's a life of celibacy after all... What follows is my testimony before the House committee. I'm honestly not sure that it will make one bit of difference. But somewhere deep down I do still believe that telling our stories can change people's minds, people's hearts, and can ultimately make a change in the world. Here's hoping... <blockquote>I am here today to support expanding infertility coverage for lesbian couples and single women. I am a lesbian, and am currently fourteen weeks pregnant with my first child. I want to tell you very briefly about my decision to become a parent. A year before I began trying to get pregnant, I started researching the process of donor insemination. I also began reading books on parenting and childhood development, began researching the best options for everything from diapers to pediatricians to day care centers, and engaged in a very serious process of thinking about what my future child’s family would look like. It was from this place of reflection and commitment to family that I decided that I was ready to become a parent. And I can tell you that before my first insemination, my child already had more god-parents in waiting than I could count on two hands, not to mention grandparents, aunts, uncles, babysitters – all eager to be a part of my expanding family. When my baby is born this summer, he or she will have a safe and secure home. My baby will have a family that loves him or her very much. The only thing my child won’t have is the $6,600 I spent on getting pregnant. I don’t regret spending my savings and borrowing money to become a parent. And as you know, many single and lesbian women spend much, much more. It does make me sad, however, that we operate on an unequal playing field, and that when it comes to paying for childcare, buying the best food available, starting a college fund, my child will begin at a disadvantage. This inequality can be leveraged in part by changing our insurance laws to provide coverage to all women in our state. Our governor has said that gays and lesbians won’t make good parents, won’t bring up their children in “normal” families. I don’t know if my family is “normal,” but I do know that it is filled with love, and that every child in this state would be lucky to be so wanted and so loved. For the sake of the many other women who will make wonderful, loving parents, I urge you to support the expansion of this insurance coverage. Thank you.</blockquote>QueerBabyMakinghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10494337831780229823noreply@blogger.com