I opined some time ago, that those who were coming down on the pro side of same sex marriage hadn’t considered all the consequences – one being the newly elevated status of gay couples when petitioning courts for custody of children from one partner’s previous marriage. (Contrary to popular belief, homosexuals have always had the right to marry. My long list of divorced gay friends puts to the lie to that one.) I asked the hypothetical question: “How would a judge view a situation in which a former husband, who, after leaving his wife for a new lover turned spouse, petitions for primary custody of his young children, on the basis of higher income and more stable home life, complete with the ability of his new partner to be a “stay at home” parent? What of her concerns about her sons being raised by a gay man she barely knows – can she even give voice to those?”
Now, “Angry” has a not so hypothetical case regarding adoption.
Would he [an Ontario family law judge], once gay marriage was entrenched, and in keeping with our government’s current equity legislation in the workplace, feel obliged to fast-track gays’ access to available children to make up for “past injustices” and their “disability” on the procreative front? And what about a single mother willing to give up her child for adoption, provided the baby went to a heterosexual couple? Whose rights would be privileged, hers or those of gay adoptive applicants?
The judge paused, then said, “I haven’t ever really thought about it.” Eventually the judge opined that a gay married couple’s rights should trump a biological mother’s right to have her child raised in a normative family. And on further reflection, he decided, he would also be partial to equity adoption policies for gays.
Discuss. (Be sure to read his post and the comments, first)
And be civil, or you’ll be tossed.
(I’ve only skimmed this thread) but let me interject – not so long ago I had a post about a Kenyan economist, who put forward the argument that much of the African aids data is inflated in order to wring as much as possible from aid organizaitons.
enough – I give in. There is nothing wrong in studying sexual abuse as a cause of making people gay to test the hypothesis. I just think it’s amazing though what people think makes people gay. As a gay man, I came from a stable middle-class family and had a good childhood. There was not a sniff of abuse or distantness or a lack of love. It’s hard not to take affront to people who are postulating the reason that I am the way I am is that I was abused sometime in the past. It feels like a pointed barb at my family, my upbringing and my life.
I guess in the end, you believe what you believe, and I believe what I want to believe. I believe I was born gay. You believe that its likely that most gay people were abused. I guess the only difference is that I am looking at this from the inside and you’re looking at it from the out.
Hmmm… to help my blood pressure I think I’m going to vow not to post any comments on the next posting that Kate does about SSM or anything gay-related. Does anyone think I have the willpower? 🙂
Kyla, I myself am bald. Consider the “hurt” your attempt at humor can cause people like me who’re follicularly challenged.
I guess everyone’s a member of a minority group.
“Kyla said:
“I personally will never reproduce, because I refuse to pass on my (heterosexual) parent’s genetic potential.”
Kyla, I am NOT being antagonistic below. Just a rational, logical, perfectly legitimate question.
I hope you were simply being ironic. Otherwise, you should be hauled before the Human Rights Commission for a hate crime against a group based on its sexual orientation. Such heterophobia! Hope you recognize the ironic humor here :-)”
Good God, I don’t refuse to pass on hetero-genetics. I came from those genes, so they must have gayness in there. My gay uncle Leon is a good indication too.
I refuse to pass on genetics that have the mental illnesses of my parents lurking somewhere inside. My parents told me other races were inferior, being gay was the worst sin ever, and that the Catholic church was a false religion with the pope as the right hand of Satan.
As far as raising a child, my daughter is hopelessly heterosexual. There would never be a doubt in anyone’s mind as to her orientation.
What’s funny is, I related the fact that she has not been harrassed because she is biracial or from a gay family. Your posters who claim to _know_ what will happen to a child of a gay family are wrong, but will never admit it, even when directly presented with the truth.
My influence definitely lives on through my child, and through the thousands of people who know and respect me.
While I did think her being scared the kids would make fun of her for having a bald dad was hilarious, it was much more important what she wasn’t worried about.
Loving my full equal rights in Canada.