"I feel like I was really cheated."
Well, boo hoo hoo. Cry me a fucking river. Life doesn't guarantee you a pair of well adjusted, middle class parents with time and patience to raise you in the ideal way. In fact, it doesn't come with any guarantees at all. Being alive is a privelege.

Oh man, so much. So much....

"I want to make sure my kids are raised in a society that values marriage," she said.

"The best thing we can do to honor marriage," she continued, "is to make sure that it's only available to us straight people. We honor marriage by remaining faithful to our spouses and staying married for our entire lives. Yay!"


The children of gay men and lesbians are more likely to behave in ways that are outside the norm for their gender and may exhibit other differences as well, Maier said, citing in part a 2001 study that he called the "most comprehensive report" on the subject.

See also, Homo Parenting, July 2004, "How to Throw a Leather-and-Chains Birthday Bash for Your Four-Year-Old."


"The two most loving lesbians in the world cannot provide a father to a little boy," Maier said. "It's not just two parents. It's having the contributions of a married mother and father."

Point of fact: All fathers are good fathers. This is true. It's SCIENCE.


"I had no male role models," said Baierl, 33, who now lives in an all-male household with her husband and two young sons in Evansville. "I feel like I was really cheated."

Um... Fuck.

(Rhymes with "Dumbfuck.")

Another retrograde referendum: Wisconsin might reinstate the death penalty. Wisconsin was the second US state to abolish it ... in 1851, three years after statehood. We have the longest record of any state of zero executions.

(We probably have Steven Avery to blame for that one. He's the guy that the Innocence Project cleared for a rape-murder 20 years ago ... then he goes and commits an actual one, and ropes his underage nephew in as an accomplice.)

Anyway, back to thefirst article, the other part that really burned me apart from the girl growing up in idyllic semi-rural Wisconsin and feeling "seared", was

"The evidence confirms nothing about the quality of gay parents," he said. "It's still very early to be making any conclusive statements." -- Maier

In other words, "It's bad! We haven't proven it yet, but just wait!"

Another interesting article, from the perspective of 2 kids living with 2 moms, in today's LA Times.

Every time they quoted Maier, my head threatened to asplode.

As for Baierl, I don't get what her problem is with gay marriage. The "cheated" she felt was because she lost her father, not because she was raised by her mom and grandma. Assuming it was a happy family before his death, his death certainly disrupted her life. It seems like she hasn't been able to move on.

She doesn't need a gay marriage ban, she needs therapy.

I don't know why I feel this passionately about gay marriage. I'm a straight, white, heterosexual guy with a lovely wife and two teenaged sons. I am a Christian. And yet............

I guess the reason this pisses me off so much is that the Christian right has made such a big deal about it, and in so doing make it sound like ALL Christendom is behind them. WE are not.

Is homosexuality a sin? Let's look at it from a Christian perspective. If you look at the Bible, Jesus speaks out against all manner of misbehavior, but he seemed especially bent on injustice toward the disenfranchised. If it was such a big deal, why did Christ rarely, if ever, speak on the subject?

When asked to boil down his teachings, Jesus quoted Dueteronomy and Leviticus: "'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."

This, to me, is the starting point of Christianity. This is it, right from the horse's mouth. Here is what this means to me: A person should love God, the Divine, the Goddess, the Ultimate Power, whatever you call Him or Her or It. A person should love God enough to use his life to pay homage to his Creator.

Then, there is this: Love your neighbor as yourself. WTF does this mean? It means we treat others with dignity. We treat them as human. We treat them with compassion. WE DO NOT JUDGE THEM. These two commandments are amplified in the 12th Chapter of Paul's Letter to the Romans. I won't quote it all here, but the key points are these:

1. Hold yourself to the highest possible standard. In your heart of hearts, do what you can to honor God.

2. Deal with others charitably. Do what you can to help them and make the world better for them. Even your ENEMIES. We are not to judge our enemies; that is God's job. Therefore, as a heterosexual male, it's not my place to judge something I do not, I cannot, understand.

All this stuff boils down to a single thing to a heterosexual Christian: Integrity. We are to treat others well, we are to serve the cause of Goodness in the world. So as a heterosexual Christian, I think we should MAKE gay people follow the same standard: Act with integrity in order to make the world a better place. Follow your soul; be who you are. As long as you treat those around with integrity, what more can be asked?

Because that's what all the laws and commandments boil down to: Integrity. Treat others well. Do your best. We teach our kids this in kindergarten; how do we subsequently lose our way?

/soapbox.

Goes off into a corner and weeps for what Christianity is becoming.

In any case, how can she equate being brought up by her mother and grandmother with being rasied by a lesbian couple? The dymanics of the two households would be so different as to defy comparison, in my opinion.

"I had no male role models," said Baierl, 33, who now lives in an all-male household with her husband and two young sons in Evansville. "I feel like I was really cheated."

Well, boo fucking hoo. I was raised by my mother on her own, grew up with her and my three sisters and look how I turned out. Oh, wait, that doesn't work - maybe she has a point ;-) For a moment there, I thought you were saying that gay men are the enemy, Doohickie, but you recovered well. I agree wholeheartedly with your comments - all any of us have to do is treat each other (and ourselves) with due respect and accept that we are all different. Everything else flows from that.

and the people said,

AMEN!