Woman Binding Sheaves by Van Gogh (wikipedia.org)

Let us be honest here. The drive behind homophobia and transphobia is really about gender constructs and gender rigidity when it comes to others. It is a belief that men are Y and women are X and any deviation from that is horrifying. In the end, the Women’s Rights Movement is about that very fact. Gender is not as firmly set as many people want it to be, but then again, they are a Procrustean bed upon which society is either stretched or mutilated in order to fit, and any one who is not strong enough to survive that is considered to be worthless.

The Rainbow Sash Movement has a few points to make about the issue of women and the Catholic Church:

The Rainbow Sash Movement(RSM) believes the time has come for the Women’s Movement and the Gay/Lesbian/Bisexual/Transgender rights movements to recognize that women’s rights are Gay Rights and Gay Rights are women’s rights. “All human beings are born free and equal, in dignity and rights, it does not matter what country we live in, who our leaders are or even who we are. Because we are human we, therefore, have rights.  And because we have rights governments are bound to protect them.” Hillary Clinton [as] she gave an amazing, powerful, inspired speech at the United Nations in honor of International Human Rights Day.

In that speech she was talking about lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender persons. But clearly it applies to all human beings, including women. And if only President Obama and Secretary of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius would take those words to heart and understand that a woman’s fundamental right to birth control is a human right. They need to recognize it. They don’t give it to women, women have it. They need to recognize it.

The RSM recognizes the sin of sexism and homophobia that runs rampant in the Roman Catholic Church it is time to publicly challenge our Catholic Bishops when they spout lies about both women and GLBT people.

We are concerned that the Obama’s administration fails to embrace this simple fact that all human beings have rights. His hesitancy to move beyond his evolving position on Gay Marriage and the issue of women’s health care only underlies his reelection politics over his ethical standards.

Secretary of Health and Human Services, Kathleen Sebelius in an unprecedented move has overruled a scientific evidenced-based decision of the FDA [Food and Drug Administration]. The FDA’s decision that Plan B, a particular kind of emergency contraception is safe and effective for all women, no matter what their age and should be available over the counter. That is scientific and evidenced-based decision and Sebelius overruled it purely on political grounds. The Rainbow Sash Movement believes this decision goes against not only women’s constitutional rights but also their human rights. To attack the rights of teenage girls to have access to medications that will be lifesaving is just as bad to encourage gay/lesbian suicide rates by silence. Young teenage girls have rights that must also be protected.

The Rainbow Sash Movement believes that the Hyde Amendment should be overturned by banning Medicare coverage of abortion you put the lives of poor women at risk.

For too long the Rainbow Sash Movement has been silent on this issue. Our tone and lack of attention has sometimes alienated our sisters and for that we seek forgiveness. Our new year’s resolution is that we will stand for the human dignity of all people regardless of gender or sexual orientation both inside and outside of the Church.

We particularly challenge our Theologians, and Catholic Media both progressive and conservative to stop their biased based justification for the status quo of sexism, and become the voices of challenge.

We support the efforts of the National Organization of Women and call on our Catholic Bishops in the spirit of the Gospels to Challenge both their homophobia and sexism. We especially want teenage girls to know it will get better.