Gay Marriage vs. Only a Mother and Father Can Raise a Child

The Wall Street Journal has an anti-gay marriage editorial that sounds like it was co-authored by far right Christianist Robert Knight and Pope Benedict XVI. Naturally, the editorial gets into the "bodily parts fitting" dissertation and then moves on to the usual whine that only a heterosexual couple can best raise children. Of course this latter argument utterly ignores all of the unfit straight parents in the world and that same sex couples would frequently be a vast improvement over the what many children find themselves saddle with. First, here are some highlights from the WSJ op-ed:

*

Lawyers challenging traditional marriage laws liken their cause to Loving v. Virginia (which invalidated laws against interracial marriages), insinuating that conjugal-marriage supporters are bigots. This is ludicrous and offensive, and no one should hesitate to say so. The definition of marriage was not at stake in Loving. Everyone agreed that interracial marriages were marriages. Racists just wanted to ban them as part of the evil regime of white supremacy that the equal protection clause was designed to destroy.

*

Opponents of racist laws in Loving did not question the idea, deeply embodied in our law and its shaping philosophical tradition, of marriage as a union that takes its distinctive character from being founded, unlike other friendships, on bodily unity of the kind that sometimes generates new life. This unity is why marriage, in our legal tradition, is consummated only by acts that are generative in kind. Such acts unite husband and wife at the most fundamental level and thus legally consummate marriage whether or not they are generative in effect, and even when conception is not sought.

*

And only this view can explain why the state should regulate marriage (as opposed to ordinary friendships) at all—to make it more likely that, wherever possible, children are reared in the context of the bond between the parents whose sexual union gave them life. If marriage is redefined, its connection to organic bodily union—and thus to procreation—will be undermined.

*

The marriage culture, already wounded by widespread divorce, nonmarital cohabitation and out-of-wedlock childbearing will fare no better than it has in those European societies that were in the vanguard of sexual “enlightenment.” And the primary victims of a weakened marriage culture are always children and those in the poorest, most vulnerable sectors of society. Candid and clear-thinking advocates of redefining marriage recognize that doing so entails abandoning norms such as monogamy.

*

Pompous assholes like this author make my blood boil because they utterly discount LGBT Americans as equal humans. As a result, I am going to look at a story where a heterosexual marriage failed to protect and raise children. The incident happened a week or so ago, but new toxicology results indicate that this married heterosexual mother was not more fit than a gay or lesbian parent would have been. She was in fact far, far worse. At the risk of sounding mean spirited, here are some highlights from 1010WINS.com:

*

NEW YORK (1010 WINS/AP) -- A mother drank vodka and smoked marijuana while taking a vanload of children home from a weekend camping trip that ended in disaster when she went the wrong way on a highway and crashed into an SUV, killing eight people, police said Tuesday.

*

Diane Schuler, who died along with her 2-year-old daughter and three nieces in her red minivan, had more than 10 drinks of alcohol in her system and a high level of the main ingredient in marijuana, authorities said. A broken 1.75-liter bottle of Absolut vodka was found in her wrecked minivan, police said.

*

The revelations from the 36-year-old Long Island woman's autopsy helped explain how the woman her family called "an accomplished working mother who always put her children before any other priorities'' wound up driving the wrong way for nearly two miles on a suburban parkway before slamming into the SUV. The July 26 crash on the Taconic State Parkway, about 35 miles northwest of New York City, also killed three men in the SUV. Schuler's 5-year-old son, in her minivan, survived.

*

Schuler's blood-alcohol level was well above the legal limit, and she still had undigested alcohol in her stomach, State Police Maj. William Carey said Tuesday. Blood tests also showed she had smoked marijuana 15 minutes to an hour before the crash, said Betsy Spratt, chief toxicologist for the Westchester County medical examiner.

*

I wish the late Ms. Schuler no ill will. But, PLEASEEEE, stop the bullshit blather that gays cannot make equally good parents.