First time at Pride Boston last weekend, and I was amazed by the positive spirit (dare I say, "vibe"?) at the festival. The parade was inspiring, surprisingly filled with corporate floats, and even a float with LGBTQ seniors, featuring an elderly man who felt the need to wiggle his butt to the crowd. It is amazing to think that these people probably never believed they would they could be so open to cheers from the public.
As we wait for the #SCOTUS ruling, I finally read the post on the GLAD blog about the questions posed to Mary Bonauto. Reading the arguments, the one thing that really stuck with me is Judge Kagan's comment that (it is) "very hard to see how permitting same-sex couples to
marry “discourages people from being bonded with their biological
children.” I'd love to see data on the percentage of biological children being raised by their married heterosexual parents vs other combinations. Let's just say that the former is not enjoying great PR at the moment.
I am a single heterosexual mom of a "self -identified" gender queer, bi-sexual teenager, and a "self-identified" 100% straight 10 year old, who will "never get married, because I don't want to give birth to a baby". Learning more about the LGTBQ movement, has taught me how to acknowledge my teenager's anxiety about which bathroom to use in a restaurant, when there is no gender neutral option, and other situations that I never had to deal with when I was that age. My 10 year old will ask her older sibling "Do you feel like a boy or a girl today?" and loves rainbows. When she asked me why her friend has two moms, I told her that her friend was very lucky to have two moms that love her unconditionally. Her follow-up question was "Does that mean I am not luck because I have only one Mom?" Brilliant.
My kids deal with issues related to their parents not living together, different rules at separate houses, and the regular day to day events of keeping friends, homework, and how many days until summer vacation. I can't imagine that their issues are any worse from the child of the Mom on one of my Mom groups who just posted, "I want to get my 14 month old into gymnastics as soon as possible, to give her a head start. Any suggestions on places that will take her that young?" It is unfathomable for me to believe that allowing gay couples to marry will have ANY impact at all on the way I bond with my biological children.
Although I hope that my intuition is incorrect in this case, I'd like to say for the record that I can't help by think that #SCOTUS will rule that the issue of same sex marriage should be left to the people. Having an election to vote on this issue, will let the justices off the hook and in my opinion is not the worst option. However, if #SCOTUS is reading this blog, I would to say that a ruling other than allowing same sex couples marry nationwide immediately and enjoy the same benefits of hetero married couples is the only logical outcome. After all, is it ok for celebrities to marry for a few days for the benefit of a reality show? Case closed. :-)
#SCOTUS, please do the right thing.
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