Families Come In All Shapes and Sizes

I got mail today about Prop 8 that REALLY makes me MAD. I feel like we are back in the 50s and 60s when we burned books and told children they couldn't come to their neighborhood school because they weren't white. This proposition is about DISCRIMINATION, period. Vote YES if you discriminate or NO if you don't. Pretty simple really. Not one person is going to stop being "gay" because we all vote "yes." I am sorry, if you see "gay" as a problem, this proposition does nothing to "fix" it. Children's books will still be written about gay families, families of divorce, families experiencing cancer, families of disability and multiracial families, etc. Not every family looks the same and it is important for all children to learn this. Families come in all shapes and sizes, and just as a child doesn't ask to be born disabled (or the sibling of someone who is, or the child of someone who is) neither does a child who's parent is gay. So when that sweet faced child comes on television and says "Did you think of me." Well perhaps no they didn't think of her in her nice nuclear family, but perhaps they thought of the child next door or the three in her class or the 50 in her school. Proposition 8 is a hate crime waiting to happen.

Marriage is a legal contract and the only qualifier should be two people of legal age. I would add "and of a sound mind" but I don't know too many people that really go into marriage that way, as it is the euphoria of love that gets us there in the first place. Marriage in "the church" is an entirely different discussion and it is up to that religious organization if they want to recognize the union and bless it or not. Again, this proposition will not stop churches from performing marriages.

The definition of a domestic partner should suffice on benefits and next of kin but for two people wishing to proclaim their love this does lack a certain umph. Go home and call your wife your domestic partner if you think it is the same. My guess is she'll tell you what you can partner with.

Anyway, I love my family and I do not feel we are missing anything. We are whole and we are complete, but if at some point in the future our family grows I want it to grow in love. If my children come to me and share that they have chosen a life partner I want to embrace their partner and see only the love of that union. I tell you now, I am not going to have one thought of, "what will the neighbors think."

Speaking of neighbors... did we not all grow up with Sesame Street? For 39 years we have been living with, learning from and loving Ernie and Bert. Are they brothers? Foster Kids? What...? Hello, they share a room. But no one ever FREAKED out about that, did they? We are not listening to commercials on the harm that allegedly was done if we thought for a moment of what this relationship between these two puppets might imply. And despite this possible relationship, Ernie and Bert have both made WONDERFUL teachers for our children.

I think I've vented enough, maybe... hopefully.