Mike Lee wants to make it illegal for you — LITERALLY YOU, THE PERSON READING THIS — to titillate him.
Let me back up.
There’s a school board election happening in the coming days where I live. Probably, most of the incumbents will win — and perhaps one or two newbies will be elected. And that’s great. It is local politics, and I love it. One of the current board members is my neighbor, and he hears my complaints weekly.
Whatever happens within my children’s school district, I know that the board is comprised of folks from my community who care enough to engage with this difficult work and who are accountable to their neighbors. We elect them, and (mostly) we trust them to make decisions on our behalf.
The same is true of our local aldermen and women. Aside from state and federal mandates, my community and I get to slug it out when it comes to ensuring that our city and schools are operated according to our values.
This is where Senator Mike Lee’s porn stash comes in.
This month, he and Rep. Mary Miller (R-Ill.) introduced the “Interstate Obscenity Definition Act.” It’s a White Christian Nationalist’s wet dream (sorry). It seeks to redefine and standardize the legal definition of obscenity across all states.
Any guesses what kinds of things Mike Lee finds obscene?
This should scare the hell out of anyone who has an art book on their coffee table, or any woman who decides to wear something flattering — really, anyone other than straight married couples should be raging against this effort (not that straight married couples are safe from it…they aren’t).
To bring this back to my local elections, we already know that MAGA is trying to break the separation of church and state by allowing our tax dollars to go toward religious education. In other words, my little community and my hard-working little school board might decide that we would rather not fund Christian education.
But that’s too bad. One day soon, we might no longer have the ability to make decisions based on our shared values when it comes to our schools, because a White Christian Nationalist from somewhere (not here) decided he knows best.
Mike Lee’s bill takes that coercion and control a million steps further, right into our private, personal lives. His definition of obscenity is probably a whole hell of a lot different than yours, but he is seeking the power to decide on your behalf.
This isn’t about porn. It’s about your ability to make very simple, every day choices that might accidentally get Mike Lee aroused. That’s too much leg. That’s a nude painting from the Renaissance. That’s flirty language in TV shows (no more biannual Gilmore Girl binges).
The language is simple, yet vague, but the scope of this bill is gobsmacking and potentially society-ending. To get the full picture, watch Lisa Senecal’s talk with Andra Watkins, and then head to Andra’s Substack for even more gruesome details (see below for a link).
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