The Augment Rights Movement encompassed a period of social movements with the goal of ending American anti-genetic modification policies and social discrimination against augmented humans. During this movement, augmented humans and their allies had a long history of campaigning for what is now generally called GM rights, sometimes also called augment rights. Although there is not a primary or an overarching central organization that represents all augmented people and their interests, numerous GM rights organizations are active worldwide.
Background[]
By the 2060s genetic engineering had become an increasingly common practice for humans, though a form of genetic modification had been in use for the better part of the last 40 years to eliminate genetic defects of in vitro embryos. By 2040, only about 700,000 people had been genetically modified, most in the US, Canada, Japan, and South Korea. By 2060 that number had jumped to 34 million, largely the result of technology transfer from Human Augmentation R&D projects from the Third World War. Bionic augmentation had been in use since the 2020s and 30s, but was not in wide use due to the risk of rejection by the body and the invasive implant procedures. The lead up to WWIII and the Colonization of Space jump-started the development of post-natal modification, which grew by leaps and bounds during the war.
US Defense Department Technology Transfer programs enabled private companies to begin introducing genetic modification technologies into the public at large shortly after the war. Initially these modifications were adopted purely by the medical community for eliminating genetic defects, viral disease, or increasing patient resistance to environmental health risks. The first examples of this technology were pigment augmentations, branded "trans-racial" augmentations at the time. The first of these treatments entered the market in 2056 and allowed individuals to change their skin colors to another baseline human pigment. The use of these treatments were originally marketed to people either facing Vitamin D deficiencies or people prone to sunburns. The initial backlash came from older voters who believed that these treatments were little more than a means of cultural appropriation. Some radicals went so far as to claim that these treatments were a covert effort at ethnic cleansing, which was true of some authoritarian ethno-nationalist regimes at the time.
By 2058 the first enhancements to muscle and lung performance entered the mass market, originally marketed to spacers, and people recovering from muscle atrophy. However, during the 2058 Warsaw Winter Olympics an American Decathlete, Nala Jackson, received modifications for lung function and muscle recovery, leading to her record breaking victory. It was discovered shortly after her Gold Medal ceremony that she had received augmentations, and the subsequent investigation led to new regulations against genetic modification in the Olympics. While Jackson was largely condemned by the mainstream athletic community, she found a great deal of support in the Paralympic community which had been breaking unaugmented athlete's records for years and seldom received the kind of media attention and sponsorships of their unaugmented counterparts. This scandal brought augmentation to the public eye, and is typically seen as both the start of Augment Rights movement.
Genetic Discrimination[]
After the Jackson scandal, genetic augmentation became a hot button issue, and was viewed by a large portion of society as a social ill. During the 2058 midterms the Democrats adopted a platform to ban "cosmetic" and "transracial" post-natal augmentations, and punish those who received such augmentations. The issue became so contentious that the liberal revivalist wing of the Democratic party split to form the Liberal Party in 2060, launching Senator Reed Chen's successful bid for the White House. Opposition to Chen drove the Democratic-Socialists to join the Democrats and form the Progress Party. Progressives in Congress passed the Falana act, overturned President Chen's veto with help from the Dignidad and People's parties, leading to a nationwide ban on human augmentation for what it defined as "recreational," uses. These included hair, eye, and skin pigments and patterns, reproductive augmentations, and augmentations that emulated the look and function of animals (eyes, claws, padded feet, fur, tails, reproductive organs, etc.). The majority of these augmentations were used by young people, creating a new generational clash in the zeitgeist.
The first recorded hate crime against a Genetically Modified person was committed in 2064 when Toray Shears of Utah was stoned to death outside of a Mormon tabernacle. Shears, 19, had recently received a genetic augmentation that dramatically increased his vocal range, which he was recorded as hoping to apply in his choir. His assailant's murder conviction was overturned by the 12th Circuit Court of Appeals which defined Toray Shears (and indeed all augments) as non-humans, and therefore not afforded the legal protections under the law. Thatch v. Utah was eventually brought before the Supreme court after a year long appeal process, and in a 5 to 4 decision, it was ruled that augmented humans were still basically human beings and afforded all the rights of the constitution. "Thatch v. Utah" was also saw the first legal opinion that used the term "clade" to refer to augmented and unaugmented humans.
Many sociologists and anthropologists have suggested that the extreme backlash against augmented humans, particularly among the Flood Generation, stemmed from their own generation's "naturalist culture." Many progressive figures of that era used naturalist arguments to gain support for equal marriage rights for non-heteronormative couples and tearing down institutional racism. While many agree this was essential to breaking down cultural barriers against sexuality and ethnicity, many believe this caused the Flood Generation to overvalue naturalism in their formative years. Many argue the effects of climate change bolstered this belief in naturalism while their successors more readily embraced post-naturalist ideas.
For much of the 2060s human augmentation continued to leak its way into mainstream society, and while cosmetic or recreational augmentations were popular among the youth, most augmentations were actually used for improving an individual's physical or mental capabilities. Athlete's continued to use genetic and bionic modifications to augment their performance, while professionals sought mental augmentations to increase their abilities in the workplace. Much of the actual public backlash was directed at many of these individuals, often by workplace colleagues, neighbors, family members, and on university campuses by fellow students.
Augment Liberation[]
In the United States, the first wave of Augment Rights advocates chose to adopt similar policies to the gay liberation movement of the late 20th Century, and began opting for expressive genetic enhancements. Prior to the political movement, many saw augments as social deviants, particularly those who sought augmentations for sex organs, and those subcultures who sought to resemble what they would normally have to dress up as i.e Cosplay. But the Augment Liberation movement chose to adopt simple, visually pleasing augmentations that were designed to shock public perception of augmentation. The movement carried out a series of rallies and demonstrations supporting human augmentation, however, poll data from that era indicated that the movement actually did more to push the public in opposition to augmentation until Thatch v. Utah scandalized and embarrassed those who were anti-augment and helped to turn the public over to their side. The ruling also led to the Second Wave of Augment Liberation, often known as "Splicer Punk" which saw people adopt increasingly more radical augmentations as a form of solidarity and shock protest.
Augmentation Rights Act[]
Throughout the 2060s, augmentation rights made incremental advances in the courts and among more liberal governments. As a social movement, the resistance to augmentation in adults ran up against its prevalence among children. By the end of the 2060s, it was estimated that 72% of all children born in the United States were in some way genetically augmented, enabled by ever cheaper and non-invasive genetic engineering techniques that further democratized treatments in adults. A generation of people born with edited genes and a good deal of their parents fueled the rise of post-naturalist thinking among the general public that was gradually reflected in government. The definition of "cosmetic augmentation" continued to legally erode as liberal governments and jurists allowed for more exceptions to the bans from the 2050s.
With public opinion shifting toward broad legalization of adult augmentation, calls grew for the Anderson administration and the US Congress to overturn all or part of the Falana Act. President Anderson resisted these calls for much of her Presidency, but following the UCSD shooting of pro-augment students by members of the California National Guard, her administration faced severe public outcry for change. That outcry came in the form of Cool Zone of 2069-70, a period of civil unrest unseen and mass protest that gripped the country. After multiple clashes with demonstrators, the Liberal and Conservative parties in Congress joined forces to introduce the Augment Rights Act. With aid from Progressive members of Congress and a deal with Anderson to endorse whatever bill ultimately made it through the legislature, the Augmentation Rights Act was passed on March 3, 2070, effectively bringing the unrest to an end. The ARA overturned the Falana Act's most radical policies, but maintained a ban on all post-natal augmentations before the age of 18.
Legacy[]
Augment rights protest activity had an observable impact on natural-American's views on augmentation and politics over time. Natural people who live in counties in which augment rights protests of historical significance occurred have been found to have lower levels of resentment against augmented people, are more likely to identify with the Liberal and later Horizon Party as well as more likely to support post-naturalist policies.
Public support for post-natal augmentations through the latter half of the 21st century tended to be based on preventing a limiting in access to healthcare, and preserving personal liberty. The Splicer Punk movement would continue to be seen as disruptive, even dangerous by many Americans, including fellow augments. The movement would fade in relevance into the 2090s, but would spawn numerous successor subcultures that would define the counterculture of well into the 22nd Century.
Outside of the US, many nations saw the Augment Rights Movement as proof positive that the US had fallen into decadence and depravity, leading to reactionary religious and social movements in many parts of the world.
As of the 2160s, public support for augmentation has become gentrified, and it is seen as simply another aspect of human culture.