Today is Friday, November 25, 2022. One day after Thanksgiving when everyone ate too much or clashed with Uncle Joe or Aunt Martha at the dinner table over politics. I missed watching the 96th annual Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade yesterday and so did Today show host Al Roker, who has been covering the annual parade for so many years. This marked his first departure from the parade in 27 years because of a medical issue. He has been discharged from a hospital on Thursday after recovering from blood clots in his leg that caused clots in his lungs as well. We wish him well on his continued recovery.

I also heard that air travel over this particular holiday has exceeded all expectations and has almost mirrored pre-COVID levels from 2019. I am so glad that I did not join that number of harried air travelers. It’s generally our posture not to travel anywhere over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. My son did come in from Florida on Wednesday and intends to leave New York on Sunday. Elliot and I met him today for a late lunch/early dinner at a Thai restaurant in Bayside.

Going through today’s copy of the Daily News, which I now buy instead of getting delivered, I was impressed by an article on what the French are doing to enshrine abortion in that country. The article by Muri Assuncao is entitled “French pols move to protect abortion” tells the story of how one country has undertaken to protect abortion rights while noting that this once progressive country has taken many steps backward in its overturning of Roe v. Wade in June and which has led to many defeats by Republicans at the hands of angry voters. So French lawmakers yesterday took a step closer to enshrining abortion rights in the country’s constitution.

“In a rare cross-party vote, centrist and leftist members of the Country’s National Assembly overwhelmingly approved a resolution to add a clause to the constitution to guarantee the right to an abortion.”

The clause reads, “The law guarantees the effectiveness and equal access to the right to voluntarily end a pregnancy.”

The measure passed with 337 votes in favor and 32 votes against the measure, while 18 abstained. The party’s leader, Mathilde Panot, tweeted one word after the measure passed, “Victory!” She added, “Today, France speaks to the world.”

This big, bold step on the part of French lawmakers made on the heels of the U.S. Supreme Court’s revocation of the right to an abortion here in June now needs to be approved by the Senate and then be sent to a nationwide referendum.

Even though abortion was decriminalized in France in 1975, nothing in the constitution guarantees that right. Until now!

The leader referenced above had this to say about the effect of this measure on the world, “By introducing abortion rights into the Constitution, France would become a pioneer in terms of women’s rights.” Amen!

Panot added, “We don’t want to give any chance to people hostile to abortion and contraception rights.” Let’s hope this resolution will eventually pass, thus making this country the most progressive in terms of women’s rights, in direct contrast to our country that has taken steps to deprive women of them.

In conjunction with one country’s progressive approach to codifying women’s rights in their constitution, we have the opposite steps taken by another country, in this case Russia, geared to suppressing LGBTQ+ rights in their country by introducing a bill yesterday that would ban the promotion of what Russian lawmakers call “nontraditional sexual relations” among adults. This regressive development is also found in the Daily News in an article by Muri Assuncao, the writer of the first article, The title is “Russia lawmakers approve bill banning ‘LGBTQ propaganda.'”

The bill introduced here – which was approved by the lower House of Parliament, or State Duma, after a third and final reading – bans “LGBTQ propaganda” in traditional media, on the internet, or on merchandise sold to the public.

It’s an expansion of a law that went into effect in 2013 and that outlawed any public discussions of positive messages about LGBTQ issues with minors – which was described by the Human Rights Watch as a “classic example of political homophobia” that “targets vulnerable sexual and gender minorities for political gain.”

The bill now goes to the Federation Council, the country’s upper House of Parliament, before heading to President Vladimir Putin for signing. Who would want to bet that he would not sign the legislation?

Under the revised law, any act seen as an attempt to “promote” LGBTQ behavior – on social media, films, television, print media, advertising, or in public – could lead to heavy fines or expulsion. Thus Russia is now progressing to just scrub any mention of LGBTQ issues from the eyes of the citizenry. They are trying to sweep mention of such topics right under the collective rug of the nation, and it’s just part and parcel of an autocratic country under the iron rule of its supreme commander, Putin.

Thus Russian citizens who fail to comply with the law could be slapped with fines up to $3,300 for individuals and up to $82,700 for legal entities. Noncitizens could be sent to jail for 15 days before being deported. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad to be deported then for these persons.

As for the number of lawmakers approving such a restrictive measure, it was noted that about 400 legislators in the 450-member chamber sponsored the legislation, according to Russia’s state-owned news agency TASS.

The only “good” thing coming out of this bill is that violations under this law will not be considered criminal offenses as of yet, but that could change. Some vengeful legislators have already shown support for an amendment to the criminal code that would make violations of such a law a criminal offense. The jails in Russia aren’t crowded enough with political dissidents and the like; they need to bulge with these kinds of offenders. How very sad!

So there you have a snapshot of two countries and how they have approached two cultural fronts very differently. I would strongly assert that France’s policy here with regard to enshrining abortion rights is the one to model and definitely not Russia’s approach to suppressing LGBTQ rights. It is certainly not easy being a gay person living in such a repressive country as Russia.

Hell, it’s not easy living even in America now, with all of the anti-LGBTQ+ blather coming from the far right. Tomorrow will mark the one-week commemoration of the deadly Colorado Springs gay nightclub massacre in which five people died – and at least 19 people were injured – at the hands of a young gunman. There would have been more fatalities if two courageous patrons at the bar didn’t intervene, stopping the shooter in his tracks. The club was supposed to have represented a safe space for members of the LGBTQ+ community, but that was shattered last week. Hate speech against gays and other minority groups must be called out wherever it emanates from. Even our right to get married could one day be taken away by some Supreme Court edict, but the Senate is supposed to be taking steps to codify this at the moment. We’ll see what develops then.

So it’s time to wish everyone a good weekend. Enjoy your leftover turkey.

Stay safe and be well.