Volume III (Exit...Stage Left): Constitutional Child's Play
Committed gay couples deserve the same freedom to marry, with the same duties, dignity, security, and equitable legal protections that non-gay heterosexual folks have. All too often, we find conservatives and Republican lawmakers lamenting on the assertion that marriage rights should not be granted for same-sex couples because they cannot procreate...or that if same-sex couples are allowed to marry, it would somehow be detrimental to the nation's children. In fact, the Vermont Supreme Court had it right when they said that "[i]f anything, the exclusion of same-sex couples from the legal protections incident to marriage exposes their children to the precise risks that the state argues the marriage laws are designed to secure against." (Baker v Vermont, 1999). The rights of children are put at risk when we do NOT fully equip those that care for them --- gay and non-gay alike --- with the necessary tools. To illustrate, let's ponder the following:
· "If moral disapprobation of homosexual conduct is 'no state interest' for purposes of proscribing private adult sex, what justification could there possibly be for denying the benefits of marriage to homosexual couples? Surely not the encouragement of procreation, since the sterile and elderly are allowed to marry." - U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia (Lawrence v Texas, 2003).
· U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia has stated that "no state requires that non-gay couples prove that they can procreate --- or promise that they will procreate --- before issuing them a marriage license. Indeed, no state requires, as a condition of a valid marriage, that a couple promises to even engage in sexual intercourse, which would be required for traditional procreation." Note: President George Washington, the so-called father of the nation, NEVER had any children with his wife Martha.
· "People marry for a many reasons, not all or even most of them related to children. People marry for a variety of reasons including, but not limited to, the following: (1) having or raising children (2) stability and commitment (3) emotional closeness (4) intimacy and monogamy (5) the establishment of a framework for a long-term relationship (6) personal significance (7) recognition by society [and] (8) certain legal and economic protections. Gay men and women share this same mix of reasons for wanting to be able to marry, a mix that may include having, or caring for, one's kids, but often does not, and that, for many couples, turn on other important aspects of marriage." Turner v Safley, 482 U.S.C. 78 (U.S. Supreme Court, 1987).
· "While two parents are usually, though not always, better than one, the two can certainly be of the same sex. The experts on both sides agreed that the strength of a family and the quality of parenting are best defined by love, committment, responsibility, and self-sacrifice, [and] not by the sex of the parents." - Baer v Levin (U.S. Supreme Court, 1993), "Professional Opinion & Expert Testimony" by Andrew Cherlin (Johns Hopkins University), Frank Furstenberg (University of Pennsylvania), and Sara McLanahan (University of Wisconsin).
· "The American Psychological Association (APA) reported that children raised by gay parents are 'not disadvantaged in any significant respect relative to the children of heterosexual parents.' Since then, most of the nation's leading organizations devoted to children's health, children's welfare, and children's mental health have declared that a parent's sexual orientation, gay or non-gay, is irrelevant to that parent's ability to raise a child. In addition to the APA, these groups include the American Academy of Family Physicians, the American Psychiatric Association, the Child Welfare League of America, the North American Council on Adoptable Children, the National Education Association, and the National Association of Social Workers., among others." - Baer v Levin (1993), "Professional Opinion" by the Human Rights Campaighn (HRC).
· "In 2002, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the organization representing our nation's kids' doctors, issued a formal policy statement in support of gay parents and their children. The pediatricians noted that gay parents are fit and loving, and [that] their kids are doing well, and recommended that the law provide for legal structures of responsibility and support for those families that are the same as those provided for others [heterosexuals] under the legal protections and incidents of marriage." - "Co-Parent or Second Parent Adoption By Same-Sex Parents," Pediatrics, February 2002, pp 339-340.
Conservatives...GROW UP...and be adult enough to appropriately serve our nation's kids by standing in support of their parents, gay and non-gay alike.
Progressively,
LeftAngst
· "If moral disapprobation of homosexual conduct is 'no state interest' for purposes of proscribing private adult sex, what justification could there possibly be for denying the benefits of marriage to homosexual couples? Surely not the encouragement of procreation, since the sterile and elderly are allowed to marry." - U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia (Lawrence v Texas, 2003).
· U.S. Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia has stated that "no state requires that non-gay couples prove that they can procreate --- or promise that they will procreate --- before issuing them a marriage license. Indeed, no state requires, as a condition of a valid marriage, that a couple promises to even engage in sexual intercourse, which would be required for traditional procreation." Note: President George Washington, the so-called father of the nation, NEVER had any children with his wife Martha.
· "People marry for a many reasons, not all or even most of them related to children. People marry for a variety of reasons including, but not limited to, the following: (1) having or raising children (2) stability and commitment (3) emotional closeness (4) intimacy and monogamy (5) the establishment of a framework for a long-term relationship (6) personal significance (7) recognition by society [and] (8) certain legal and economic protections. Gay men and women share this same mix of reasons for wanting to be able to marry, a mix that may include having, or caring for, one's kids, but often does not, and that, for many couples, turn on other important aspects of marriage." Turner v Safley, 482 U.S.C. 78 (U.S. Supreme Court, 1987).
· "While two parents are usually, though not always, better than one, the two can certainly be of the same sex. The experts on both sides agreed that the strength of a family and the quality of parenting are best defined by love, committment, responsibility, and self-sacrifice, [and] not by the sex of the parents." - Baer v Levin (U.S. Supreme Court, 1993), "Professional Opinion & Expert Testimony" by Andrew Cherlin (Johns Hopkins University), Frank Furstenberg (University of Pennsylvania), and Sara McLanahan (University of Wisconsin).
· "The American Psychological Association (APA) reported that children raised by gay parents are 'not disadvantaged in any significant respect relative to the children of heterosexual parents.' Since then, most of the nation's leading organizations devoted to children's health, children's welfare, and children's mental health have declared that a parent's sexual orientation, gay or non-gay, is irrelevant to that parent's ability to raise a child. In addition to the APA, these groups include the American Academy of Family Physicians, the American Psychiatric Association, the Child Welfare League of America, the North American Council on Adoptable Children, the National Education Association, and the National Association of Social Workers., among others." - Baer v Levin (1993), "Professional Opinion" by the Human Rights Campaighn (HRC).
· "In 2002, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the organization representing our nation's kids' doctors, issued a formal policy statement in support of gay parents and their children. The pediatricians noted that gay parents are fit and loving, and [that] their kids are doing well, and recommended that the law provide for legal structures of responsibility and support for those families that are the same as those provided for others [heterosexuals] under the legal protections and incidents of marriage." - "Co-Parent or Second Parent Adoption By Same-Sex Parents," Pediatrics, February 2002, pp 339-340.
Conservatives...GROW UP...and be adult enough to appropriately serve our nation's kids by standing in support of their parents, gay and non-gay alike.
Progressively,
LeftAngst
posted by LeftAngst at 3:19 PM
1 Comments:
You've got to be joking!!!! It is not a sin to be a homosexual, but it is a sin to act on it. I think our children are the ones to suffer, because they didn't choose to have parents of the same sex. It isn't fair nor natural. You tell us to grow up, but I think Left Angst needs to be reminded that even our all knowing and loving God gives us tests in life and that is exactly why we are at war, why tsunami's hit and why hurricanes' devaste America, because the people of the World have lost faith. And only when we believe will we have eternal peace.
God bless America!
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