Let’s Hear From the Kids
By: American Decency Staff
In 2008, the Supreme Court heard arguments in defense of Proposition 8, a ballot measure passed by voters and then over-ruled by the courts. The law would have barred homosexuals from state-sanctioned marriage.
In a disappointing cop out, the court ruled that the private parties defending the law had no authority to do so; the case was dismissed and the lower court’s ruling – that barring gays from marrying each other is unconstitutional – was upheld.
That decision signaled that the higher court was saving the fight over same-sex “marriage” for another day, and that day seems to have come as the nine justices are now considering cases from Michigan, Ohio, Tennessee, and Kentucky.
This decision is expected to be the case that settles the way that the American government will view same-sex “marriage.”
In that proposition 8 case, Justice Anthony Kennedy opened an interesting line of questioning:
“There are some 40,000 children in California…that live with same-sex parents, and they want their parents to have full recognition and full status. The voice of those children is important in this case, don’t you think?”
Several children of same-sex parents are using the upcoming decision to answer Justice Kennedy’s question, and their responses may not be what Kennedy anticipated.
Katy Faust, the child of a lesbian mother, wrote an open letter to Anthony Kennedy, explaining her history.
“I identify with the instinct of those children to be protective of their gay parent. In fact, I’ve done it myself. I remember how many times I repeated my speech: “I’m so happy that my parents got divorced so that I could know all of you wonderful women.” I quaffed the praise and savored the accolades. The women in my mother’s circle swooned at my maturity, my worldliness. I said it over and over, and with every refrain my performance improved. It was what all the adults in my life wanted to hear. I could have been the public service announcement for gay parenting.
I cringe when I think of it now, because it was a lie. My parents’ divorce has been the most traumatic event in my thirty-eight years of life. While I did love my mother’s partner and friends, I would have traded every one of them to have my mom and my dad loving me under the same roof. This should come as no surprise to anyone who is willing to remove the politically correct lens that we all seem to have over our eyes.
Kids want their mother and father to love them, and to love each other…”
Is it really about the children? This author describes the “lie” she told when she told her mother’s friends and lover what they wanted to hear, and other now-grown children with a similar background concur.
According to LifeSiteNews.com, B.N. Klein, whose mother was a lesbian, tells a similar tale,
“I have seen that children in gay households often become props to be publicly displayed to prove that gay families are just like heterosexual ones.”
While I do not believe all gays would be de facto bad parents, I know that the gay community has never in my lifetime put children first as anything other than a piece of property, a past mistake or a political tool to be dressed up and taken out as part of a dog-and-pony show to impress the well-meaning.”
Finally, Dawn Stefanowicz, the child of a gay father, adds her testimony,
“As children, we are not allowed to express our disagreement, pain and confusion. Most adult children from gay households do not feel safe or free to publicly express their stories and life-long challenges; they fear losing professional licenses, not obtaining employment in their chosen field, being cut off from some family members or losing whatever relationship they have with their gay parent(s). Some gay parents have threatened to leave no inheritance, if the children don’t accept their parent’s partner du jour.”
Justice Kennedy asked for the opinions of children with gay parents, and now he’s gotten them. Several of these individuals have filed amicus briefs with the Supreme Court to share their unique perspectives knowing the court’s decision will affect children of same-sex couples around the country. Will the Court listen to the children whose good they claim to seek?
We’ll see.
However, if personal testimony is not enough to convince the high court of the handicap of a same-sex parent household, perhaps science can add it’s weight to the scale of Justice.
A 2015 study from the British Journal of Education, Society & Behavioural Science analyzed the US National Health Interview Surveys of 512 children of same-sex parents who responded between 1997 and 2013.
What they found, according to LifeSiteNews.com, was that, “…on eight out of twelve psychometric measures, the risk of clinical emotional problems, developmental problems, or use of mental health treatment services is nearly double among those with same-sex parents when contrasted with children of opposite-sex parents. The estimate of serious child emotional problems in children with same-sex parents is 17 percent, compared with 7 percent among opposite-sex parents, after adjusting for age, race, gender, and parent’s education and income. Rates of ADHD were higher as well—15.5 compared to 7.1 percent. The same is true for learning disabilities: 14.1 vs. 8 percent.”
Of course, none of these stories or statistics ought to be a surprise.
“Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’?” (Matthew 19:4-6)
Marriage was not man’s idea, and it is not man’s right to “redefine it.” Our Creator designed it, and He knows how it works best.
He also wants the best for those kids.
“It would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck and he were cast into the sea than that he should cause one of these little ones to sin.” (Luke 17:2)
For their sake, let us hope – and pray to the only One whose opinion matters – that our Supreme Court Justices agree with Him.
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