Last night I was getting fed up with people turning a simple matter of wearing a mask in a store into a Constitutional crisis. I asked a simple question on Twitter about it. Thankfully I didn’t get any responses that I would call trolling, but got some that got me thinking things through again.
Some people feel the Constitution of the United States gives the freedom to do and say whatever you feel at the moment. That just isn’t true.
I remember a few years ago seeing the Charters of Freedom (The Declaration of Independence, The Constitution, and The Bill of Rights) in the National Archive. They actually focus on three different parts of our freedom. As a sex-positive blogger I often focus on the concept of freedom. I feel a need at this time to look at how a government meant to preserve my personal freedom came about. I’m not talking about the history of why they were written, or what kinds of things went on to reach the consensus they represent and record. I’m talking about just what they say. I feel like I may have written about some of this before but I need to go through the exercise for my own peace of mind.
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,” — copied from the National Archives website.
The Continental Congress had been formed for the thirteen British colonies to work together on common challenges, especially as they dealt with the Government in Britain. Those men had felt a need to separate from the Empire. The statement I’ve copied from the document they sent to the king is from the reasoning they used to justify their choice. They are laying out what they think they should be getting. The first three are grouped together as they are the most basic. Everything else is based on those three. Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness are what they felt they were being deprived of. I’ll come back to how these apply in many lives today.
Once they had freedom from the Empire, they found the government they had formed wasn’t protecting these three rights as well as they thought it should. Many of them along with some other representatives met to form a new government that would better protect Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness. They were following the second part of the Declaration in forming a government to secure these rights.
I think they could see a stronger central government was needed to “form a more perfect union.” They wanted something strong enough to get the job done but not so strong as to bring back the same problems they left by breaking with the Monarchy and Parliament of the Empire. In many ways they did a marvelous job. The best part was permitting amendments to have a way to fix problems they had created by mistake or that changing society would bring up. Most of the rights I keep hearing people claim, some correctly and some just made up, are not based on the Constitution as written at the Convention. The only right I’ve found in the part of the document before the Bill of Rights is more a right to not have to be religious to hold elected office or work in a position of trust in the government that was being created.
So the third of the Charters of Freedom now comes up. The Bill of Rights. The first ten amendments are referred to as The Bill of Rights. There were actually twelve proposed. Ten of them were ratified and became additions to the Constitution shortly (within a few years) after it was ratified. Many of these were seen as things that got left out of the original. One of the other two has since been ratified as the 27th Amendment. Those ten amendments are where most of the things people refer to as Constitutional Rights are found. For example, the only thing keeping the police from being able to just come into your house whenever they feel like it is the 4th Amendment. Some of these are worded in ways that prevent the Government from passing laws that will affect you in ways that infringe on the particular rights expressed in those amendments. Some give you guarantees of certain processes, like a trial by jury. Most of the rights we feel we have are either in the amendments, or in law. Even the current right to vote is based on amendments and laws.
So how does this affect being sex-positive, at any age? Much of the philosophy of being sex-positive goes back to the “Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness” portion of the Declaration of Independence. It stems from the very basis for the founding of the USA and many of the modern democracies around the world. Believe me, I understand the US Constitution isn’t necessarily the best. That is why we still need to introduce and ratify some amendments. I remember when there was a push to ratify the ERA (Equal Rights Amendment) when a Canadian who championed women’s rights was asked why Canada wasn’t also having the same debate. The answer was that the Canadian Constitution already protected women’t rights.
I remember when I was a fairly new teacher one of the assistant principals at my school came in after a meeting to train administrators what to do in case of sexual harassment charges at their school. He told about one of the older administrators claiming the Constitutional Right to say sexually harassing things to his staff. That the laws were interfering with his pursuit of happiness. The fact it interfered with his staff’s pursuit of happiness was unimportant.
That kind of conflict between people’s right to Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness is what government needs to referee. My wife and I tend to shop at a grocery store that has recently decided to require face masks to combat the pandemic. Every once in a while they announce the policy and explain how you can still get groceries at that store without coming into the building if you have some reason you won’t wear a mask. Some people are claiming they have a right to shop without a mask. No they don’t. Does the President have the authority to order masks to be worn nation wide? I don’t know as I’m not an attorney. It depends on what emergency authority Congress has given the President. Does maybe a governor, or mayor, have the authority to order masks worn? That depends on the state, again depending on the laws and constitution of the state.
Does a state or community have authority to arrest you for living in a polyamorous relationship of some form? As far as I know, that depends on the laws of the state or community. Can an employer fire you if they find you are living in a triad? As far as I know there is no federal law to prevent that. Polyamory isn’t a protected class under federal law. Could the same logic used to protect trans people in a recent decision be used should an employer decide to fire someone for being a swinger? Maybe, but it would have to go through the courts.
If we feel we have the rights of Life, Liberty, and the pursuit of Happiness mentioned in the Declaration of Independence we need to keep working towards forming a “more perfect union” by voting for candidates at all levels, including locally, who will see to it those rights are protected. Right now, more than any other time in my life, I’m aware of people fighting to keep certain classes of people from enjoying those rights. I’m sure if many who fall under the umbrella of “alternate lifestyles” were to come to their attention they would be included in the process of suppressing their rights.
While so many are trying to muddy the waters of just what we have a right to and what isn’t protected currently, let’s always work towards accepting people’s sexual choices as long as they are ethical. That means all those participating have freely given consent for whatever activity is going on. We should accept whatever form the relationships created by that activity may take.