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Strollerderby
I imagine that, as a child in the foster-care system, it would be difficult to trust anyone, be it case workers, foster parents, or pretty much any adult. But when an entire foster-care program throws up its hands and walks away, that’s got to hurt. Especially when the reason is as irrelevant and malicious as a personal opposition to same-sex marriage. That, however, is exactly what the Catholic Church has done in Washington D.C.
Despite the fact that virtually every professional organization agrees with the American Psychological Association when they say “efforts to change sexual orientation are unlikely to be successful and involve some risk of harm, contrary to the claims of SOCE practitioners and advocates,” high school students in the Montgomery County Public Schools in Maryland were given information from the group Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays and Gays last week, claiming that sexual orientation is merely a choice. And a bad one at that.
In which we take a look at what’s going on outside our own crib. Continue reading »
Imagine a whole week in a middle school where every kid can walk down the hallways without getting picked on. Fat kids, dumb kids, nerdy kids: they all can go about their business without anyone mocking them for the trait that makes them stand out.
The Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), Scholastic Children’s Publishing and 40 other partners hopes to create just that with its No Name Calling Week, which kicks off today. Continue reading »
In our house, it’s simply “The Trial”. My brother-in-law, who follows such things, says that this is probably the biggest case in the last 40 years. It will very likely affect every state in the nation and will either affirm or weaken the constitution, depending on the outcome. And whatever the outcome, in another twenty years’ time, it will almost certainly be moot, except as a chapter in high school civics books. The Trial, of course, is the case of Perry et al v. Schwarzenegger et al, also known as the federal challenge to California’s Proposition 8.
According to a psychologist testifying in the federal case challenging the constitutionality of California’s Proposition 8, same-sex parents are just as good as their mixed-gender counterparts. That’s not just one man’s opinion, however. It’s the finding of more than a hundred studies on the subject and the official opinion of the American Psychological Association and seven other professional organizations. And based on my own personal experiences, I have to agree.
There is far more to being a parent than genetics. Sure, there are animals where the male drops by, makes a deposit, and leaves the female to bear and raise the young on her own, but they’re, well, animals. Most of us, I think, see ourselves as being evolved past that. For humans, being a parent means caring for the child more than it means being genetically related. For that matter, other than in cases of medical issues, does genetics really matter?
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