A Woman's Declaration of Independence

I wrote this many years ago and just came across it again recently. I really like it and wanted to share it. It's adapted, with as little editing as I could manage, from the wonderful and powerful American Declaration of Independence.

A WOMAN'S DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE:

When in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one Woman to declare her freedom as a human being, a decent respect to the opinions of her family, friends and colleagues requires that she should state the causes which impel her to this declaration.--

I hold these truths to be self-evident: that I am created equal to all other people, that I am endowed with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, the pursuit of Happiness and the Freedom to be Myself, with both qualities and flaws equally important to my character and therefore not to be tampered with or abused by any other person.--

That whenever any person becomes destructive of these Rights, it is my duty to remain loyal to my Self, in my person and my intellect, and to institute new circumstances, laying their foundation on such principals and organizing their powers in such form, as shall seem most likely to effect my own Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that relationships long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that people are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce me under absolute Control, it is my right, it is my duty, to throw off such a relationship, and to provide new circumstances for my own future security.--

In every stage of Oppressions I endure, I will Petition for Redress in the most humble terms: But if my repeated Petitions are answered only by repeated injury, the person, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be my companion, as I am a Free Woman.

I, therefore, do, in my own Name, and my own Authority, solemnly publish and declare, That my Body and Spirit are, and of Right ought to be, my Own, as is due a Free and Independent Woman; that I am Absolved from all allegiances to anyone who abuses my Freedom, and that all connection between myself and any such person, will and ought to be, totally dissolved; and that as a Free and Independent Woman, I have full Power to make my own choices, feel my own emotions, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent Women may of right do.--

And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the strength of my own Dignity, I pledge my Life, my Fortune and my Sacred Honour.