Yesterday, a federal judge in a district Court of Appeals in Florida ruled that Florida's ban on adoption of children by gay and lesbian parents is unconstitutional. Forida Governor Crist agreed to cease the former law's enforcement immediately, opening the doors for thousands of gay and lesbian couples to begin the adoption process, thereby finding homes for even more children who so desperately need them. As probably all of you know, I am a staunch advocate for gay rights. This ruling will be significant for a couple of reasons:
1. The ruling will give necessary political momentum to the gay movement that will hopefully carry to 2012 when there will be Prop 8 take two (except this time, Camp Equality is pushing the initiative). In general victories for Equality such as this tend to have a ripple effect, changing the political climate for gays and lesbians such that the issue of homosexuality is put on the front burner of discussion, bringing the issues and grievances out of the closet, if you will.
2. When the ruling proceeds to the Supreme Court, a ruling in favor of adoption could nullify all laws banning gays from adopting in every state in the Nation.
Personally, this ruling is exciting for me. I have many gay friends who have adopted and are so glad they did. Knowing the children of many gay parents and seeing that they do not possess any abnormal developmental issues, I am extremely confident that gay adoption does not pose a threat for children.
The Prop 8 campaign ran a barrage of campaign ads claiming that should gay marriage become illegal, the children will somehow be compromised. These false and negative stereotypes hurt more than I can tell you. Aside from the political aspect of it, I had people telling me and everyone in the State of California that I am somehow dangerous to children, That I am a near satanic figure who wants to harm children. And when California passed Prop 8, it was personal. California told me that I am someone to be feared, and someone from whom to "protect children." This is why this ruling is especially touching to me, because it finally seems as though people aren't buying this anymore.
If you are not pro- marriage for gay people or adoption, I REALLY want you to comment and I swear I will not freak out and hate on you. We have a lot to learn from each other and I hope that this recent ruling can set up these discussions.
Love, The Power Gay
6 comments:
First off I would like to say I feel very sorry that you are treated that way, my brother goes through the same kind of pain dealing with all kinds of anti-gay maniacs. Second, I am completely supportive of gay marriage. My opinion is, "if you aint hurting me, we all good". Third, I do see how children could be affected by gay marriage though. The amount of media coverage and bullies at school would be whats 'bad' for the kids. The child itself would be fine, but other peers might not be so supportive if him or her. Gay rights can be passed into laws, but a huge problem is getting support from the other side to treat gays equally in day to day life.
*sigh* All right, here goes.
I am not pro-gay marriage. Used to be anti-gay marriage, now neutral. So I suppose I'm obligated to comment.
While part of the anti-gay-rights movement may be due to homophobia, most of the thoughtful people do not fear or hate homosexuals, and the assumption that they do sparks rather unnecessary hostility. It's not that they believe that gay people are morally inferior, but that the structure of the family requires male and female. They oppose gay marriage not because they think that gays are undeserving of human rights, but because they believe that same-sex unions are fundamentally different from heterosexual unions. Individual people with homosexual tendencies or in homosexual relationships are still people to be respected and cared for.
I am mostly in agreement with these views, but I don't think that passing legislation against gay marriage and adoption is the best thing to do.
Jack: I respect you beyond words. Thank you for being so honest and open to discussion and I'm glad that you are no longer anti-marriage. In fact, as a leader in the LGBT community, one of the things that I try to teach above all and especially in GSA is that those who disagree are NOT enemies and do NOT necessarily hate us. It took me a while to get to that point, because when you come out you have what I call blind pride: or pride in a community of which you have little knowledge. Blind pride begets blind resentment, hence many younger gays' feelings of resentment to those who disagree. As I've grown as a gay person, I've realized that yes, people may disagree, but when you make it personal, that's when things go wrong and feelings get hurt and the entire debate shifts away from the facts and issues to simply a competition of political strength.
What I especially liked from your post was this: "I am mostly in agreement with these views, but I don't think that passing legislation against gay marriage and adoption is the best thing to do." Another thing that I try to stress in GSA and in gayworld is that people can have their own beliefs and, in fact, are entitled to their own opinion. The place where I draw the line is when people attempt to push said beliefs onto my life in a way that adversely affects the quality of my life. To be honest, I really don't mind what people think about gay people as long as those beliefs don't translate into legal discrimination and/or harassment/violence.
I would disagree with the argument that homosexual relationships are fundamentally different. I can say that from personal experience. I have been in both heterosexual relationships and gay relationships and the feeling were EXACTLY the same. I have has the same middle school infatuations that we have all had, and they were for girls. I can tell you that the dynamics of the relationship weren't different and the core of the relationship ("love") was the same.
The bottom line is this: it is OK to disagree with gay people, but it is NOT ok to discriminate based on said opinion.
As I said before, I thank you, Jack, from the bottom of my heart for being so honest and so open-minded. Like I said, I harbor so much respect for you. Thank you.
I'm going to break my post up into two posts. Google just informed me that my comment was too long ;)
Jack: I respect you beyond words. Thank you for being so honest and open to discussion and I'm glad that you are no longer anti-marriage. In fact, as a leader in the LGBT community, one of the things that I try to teach above all and especially in GSA is that those who disagree are NOT enemies and do NOT necessarily hate us. It took me a while to get to that point, because when you come out you have what I call blind pride: or pride in a community of which you have little knowledge. Blind pride begets blind resentment, hence many younger gays' feelings of resentment to those who disagree. As I've grown as a gay person, I've realized that yes, people may disagree, but when you make it personal, that's when things go wrong and feelings get hurt and the entire debate shifts away from the facts and issues to simply a competition of political strength.
What I especially liked from your post was this: "I am mostly in agreement with these views, but I don't think that passing legislation against gay marriage and adoption is the best thing to do." Another thing that I try to stress in GSA and in gayworld is that people can have their own beliefs and, in fact, are entitled to their own opinion. The place where I draw the line is when people attempt to push said beliefs onto my life in a way that adversely affects the quality of my life. To be honest, I really don't mind what people think about gay people as long as those beliefs don't translate into legal discrimination and/or harassment/violence.
I would disagree with the argument that homosexual relationships are fundamentally different. I can say that from personal experience. I have been in both heterosexual relationships and gay relationships and the feeling were EXACTLY the same. I have has the same middle school infatuations that we have all had, and they were for girls. I can tell you that the dynamics of the relationship weren't different and the core of the relationship ("love") was the same.
The bottom line is this: it is OK to disagree with gay people, but it is NOT ok to discriminate based on said opinion.
As I said before, I thank you, Jack, from the bottom of my heart for being so honest and so open-minded. Like I said, I harbor so much respect for you. Thank you.
Just to print in a quote from Dante Shephard,
"A recent study indicates that children of lesbian parents performed better academically, had greater self-esteem and confidence, and had fewer behavioral problems than children with straight parents. So it’s true that homosexual couples make bad parents! Everyone knows you’re supposed to screw up your children so that they hate you in their adult years! Lesbians are clearly doing it wrong."
And here is the article to support his statement:
http://www.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1994480,00.html
While I know that Shephard's statement is sarcastic and may appear offensive to some level, I am merely just saying that a child does NOT need to grow up with both a female and male parent. All families are different, of course, but people ought to keep in mind that a child absolutely needs love and comfort, and if that love and comfort just so happens to come from two dads or two moms, then what of it?
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