MARRIAGEMOVEMENT.ORG: I'm going to put a permanent link to them on this site, so that I don't have to keep doing these updates! There's a passel of good stuff as always--if you have any interest in this debate, MM.org is the (other!) place to be.

What's new: Elizabeth Marquardt op-ed on children and SSM

What kinds of current marriages should we compare same-sex marriages to? Discusses stepfamilies, infertile or childless-by-choice couples, and elderly couples. I'd like to write a bit (not much) more about this later in the week, but for the moment, I'll just say that I'd be interested in hearing from any of our readers who support SSM but think same-sex parenting should be discouraged. If you're out there, let me know why you hold this position and whether/how you think SSM and same-sex parenting can be separated.

And a discussion between Barry Deutsch of Amptoons and Elizabeth Marquardt, on how to protect children.

A key snippet of his piece: "Elizabeth wants us to oppose equal legal rights for gays, in order to maintain a society in which same-sex families are understood to be inferior to 'the norm.' Both of these things--opposing equality and maintaining an anti-gay stigma--are very harmful, and also opposed to bedrock American ideals of equality and fairness. They would be particularly harmful, in my opinion, to gay children and to children of same-sex families."

A key snippet of hers: "My point, and he's heard it before, is this: Marriage is, at its heart, society's attempt to secure for children their mothers and fathers. Many social changes in recent years have weakened this norm. I view all of these as serious problems and spend most of my time studying and writing about one of them, divorce. However, admitting that heterosexuals have done an awful lot to screw up marriage in recent decades (along with a few good things, such as greater insistence on gender equality, emotional connection, etc.), legalizing gay marriage as MA has done is the first time we have changed the norm itself. Making the definition of marriage gender-neutral allows us only to say that children need 'parents' but not the two people whose physical sex act created the child. Very often, though, children when they are grown tell us something more nuanced and distressing--while they love the parents who raised them, the lost relationship with one or both biological parents was a source of serious emotional pain as they came of age."

Eve's question for Elizabeth: Why not support civil unions only for same-sex couples?
posted by Eve at 5:05 PM VOTE

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home