Tot Sauce: My Two Dads
Same-sex marriage is a hot button topic right now. My personal belief is that any couple comprised of two consenting adults, heterosexual or homosexual, should be afforded the same rights as any other tax-paying, law-abiding citizen in this country, including marriage.
My parents are very conservative and therefore against it entirely. So I don't know what in my life has led me to this conclusion other than to deny it of two people who are in love just seems inherently wrong to me.
I don't buy into the whole "it ruins the sanctity of marriage" argument because to me, a marriage is about love. I don't see how a same-sex couple getting married somehow diminishes my marriage.
And of course there is the moral and religious perspective that it's just wrong. I don't have a problem with this perspective if that is your personal belief. But in this country there is an intentional separation of church and state. So any law denying people the right to marry based solely on religious beliefs is simply unconstitutional.
I also don't subscribe to the idea that the purpose of marriage is to have children. I know some very loving and stable marriages that will never result in children because either the couple has chosen never to have kids, or they are unable to. Does that mean they shouldn't be allowed to marry?
And speaking of kids (that's what we're really here to discuss, right?) …
What about children raised by same-sex couples? I don't personally know any, so I cannot speak to the "normalcy" of their home lives. What I do know is that raising kids is a challenge no matter who you are and what your relationship status, and it only gets harder as they get older and more inquisitive. Tough questions are tough questions. Why are the other kids being mean to me? Where do babies come from? Why does Lucy have two dads?
There was recently a story in the news about a 5th-grade-boy who was chosen to give a speech in front of his school as part of a contest. His topic? Same-sex marriage (except that he was too shy to say "sex" so he changed it to same-gender marriage). He was told that he wouldn't be allowed to give his speech in front of the entire school because it would likely anger some parents. So he changed his topic to animal abuse instead. Later it was decided that he could deliver his original speech, but only to his 5th-grade-class.
So what do you think? Did the school make the right decision? Is the topic inappropriate for school? Or do you think it's OK for kids to be exposed to controversial arguments like this at school?
Photo by Flickr member pearlbear78, used under a Creative Commons License.
