California Supreme Court agrees to hear same-sex marriage case
The L.A. Times reports that the California Supreme Court has agreed to hear a challenge to Proposition 8. But it also denied a request to put the ban on hold until it considers the challenge.
From the court:
The California Supreme Court today denied requests to stay the enforcement or implementation of Proposition 8, and at the same time agreed to decide several issues arising out of the passage of Proposition 8. The court’s order, issued in the first three cases that had been filed directly in the state’s highest court challenging the validity of Proposition 8, directed the parties to brief and argue three issues: (1) Is Proposition 8 invalid because it constitutes a revision of, rather than an amendment to, the California Constitution? (2) Does Proposition 8 violate the separation-of-powers doctrine under the California Constitution? (3) If Proposition 8 is not unconstitutional, what is its effect, if any, on the marriages of same-sex couples performed before the adoption of Proposition 8?
I still cannot understand, for the life of me, why people link the issues of children and parenting to homosexuality. True, homosexual couples can’t produce children, but they have adopted them, and track record of gay parents seems pretty good (see the American Psychological Association’s article: http://www.apa.org/pi/lgbc/policy/parents.html). It seems to me, as a heterosexual man with a loving fiancee, that people still buy into the 1950s-era idea that homosexuality is somehow identical to pedophilia.
No, really, there was an effort during those days to equate homosexuality with pedophilia, and you can see an example by searching for “Boys Beware” on YouTube.com.
I know several gay people, and none of them are pedophiles. There is plenty of research on the attempt to connect homosexuality and pedophilia through the media and other sources (http://psychology.ucdavis.edu/rainbow/HTML/facts_molestation.html). And yet, this strange association continues to persist in the minds of many.
The truth is, any caring adult can care for a child in need. Sadly, it is also true that some (a minority) of adults molest children. The percentage of homosexuals involved in child molestation seems to be very small, according to large scale government research (see http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/8008535?dopt=Citation). Certainly it is far smaller than the proportion of homosexuals in our society, which is probably about 10%.
So, what is the problem? I mean, why do people continue to think that homosexuality is a threat to children? Is it because we have created an anxiety among straight parents that it is somehow bad for a child to be gay? Where does this anxiety come from?
It seems to me that this anxiety might be the result of a lot of inaccurate information that we, and our parents and grandparents, have been given. Check out the 1950s youtube video I mentioned above, if you want to see a good example of how our parents and grandparents were influenced by media. It’s pretty obvious.
Today, we understand that things aren’t simple. We understand that, for example, race or gender is no reason to hold someone back. Why, then, is it still socially acceptable to openly argue for the segregation of people that have a different sexual preference? What is to be feared?
Our children will be who they are, and we, as parents, will always be the greatest influence on them. We will make our desires known, and they will make their own choices. Should we fear our children’s choices? Should we assume that we always know better, despite the failings of our generations?
If some of our children are gay, shouldn’t we learn from them, even if we can’t share their whole experience?
I, for one, now think of “proud parenting” as a way of encouraging my children to be achievers, even if they live differently from me. I hope that, even if any of my children turn out to be gay, I will be ready to help them make the best of our world, and their situation in it. For me, it’s about building community and family, regardless of who my child falls in love with.
A Proud Parent