I Support Bodily Autonomy

I believe in bodily autonomy for everyone. I believe that the law can and should enforce bodily autonomy, and that laws which violate bodily autonomy are bad laws and should be changed or eliminated.

What does that mean?

It means that your body belongs only and exclusively to YOU, and each other person’s body belongs only and exclusively to THEM.

It means that if you do not consent to sex with someone, then you don't ever have to have any kind of sex with that person. If you consent to some forms of sex and not others, then you don't ever have to perform the kinds of sex that you don't consent to. If you and your partner have consensual sex in ways that I, personally, find off-putting, then shine on you crazy diamond. It is not my place, nor anyone else's, to stop you, as long as everyone involved is a fully-consenting adult.

It means that the only people whose opinions matter at all about bodily alterations are you, and occasionally the professional opinion of the person doing the alterations.

What do I mean by bodily alterations? Haircuts, medications, surgeries, tattoos, and piercings of all sorts. To be 100% clear: this includes abortion, sterilization, and all forms of medical gender transition.

If a person is old enough to consent to a bodily alteration, and wants it, then that person should be allowed to have that bodily alteration done, however “extreme” it may seem to someone else.

If a person, regardless of age, does not consent to a bodily alteration—however minor—then that person should not be forced to have that bodily alteration done on them.

Because I want to make certain that I have made myself abundantly clear:

• If a person wants to be sterilized and can sign an informed consent waiver, then sterilize that person. If a person does not want to be sterilized, then do not sterilize that person.
• If a person wants to have an abortion—regardless of the reason—then informed consent should be all that is needed for them to get that abortion. If a person does not want to have an abortion, or believes that it is evil to have an abortion, then do not give that person an abortion.
• If a person wants to socially transition, at any age—this meaning that they change their clothing, name, pronouns, and hairstyle, and have zero medical intervention—then that person should be permitted to socially transition. If a person doesn’t want to socially transition, then do not force that person to socially transition.
• If a person wants to take hormonal medication for a health condition (and gender dysphoria is a kind of health condition), then that person should be permitted to take the hormonal medication. If a person doesn’t want to take hormonal medication, for any reason, then do not force that person to take that hormonal medication.
• If a person wants to have any kind of surgery at all, is healthy enough to undergo surgery, and can sign an informed consent waiver, then that person should be permitted to undergo that surgery. If a person does not want to have any kind of surgery at all—even if it would save that person’s life—then that person should not be forced to go under the knife.
• If a person is too young to speak, and a bodily alteration is not a matter of life and death, then that person should not be forced to have that bodily alteration done on them. To be 100% clear: this includes ear piercings, non-religious circumcisions, and the cruel surgeries to “correct” the genitals of intersex children. I do not believe that any of these things would happen to infants in a just society.
• If a Native American child’s long hair makes his teacher uncomfortable, and the child does not want to cut off his hair, which has important cultural significance to him, then that child should not be forced to cut off his hair, and the teacher will just have to learn to live with harmless discomfort.
• If a Black person's natural hair makes white people uncomfortable, and that person does not want to chemically straighten or cut off their natural hair, then that person should be allowed to enjoy their natural hair in whatever styles they want, and white people will just have to learn to live with harmless discomfort.
• If the only way to enforce a law is by having someone inspect the genitals of other people without their consent, then that law is a bad one because it cannot be enforced without violating a person's bodily autonomy.

I hope that this clears things up.