With California marrying gay couples at record speed, I am thinking about the potential ramifications. For the average adult, i don’t see any real potential negative impact. But this isn’t just about adults. Right Democrat says this:
When you create a same sex marriage, you are simultaneously creating a same sex family. Our responsibility is to always ask, “What is in the best interest of children?” When it comes to marriage, children always do better when they grow up with a married mother and father.
No, gay marriage will not destroy society, but there IS a question of how it will affect families. We simply do not know what the outcome will be. What we do know is that decades of research (and Barack Obama’s last big speech) seem to indicate children benefit most from a mother AND a father. I do not care about the sex practices of gays. I don’t even really care if they get married. But I do wonder about how this will affect children. Gay marriage supporters can define this however they want (insert poor analogies to the civil rights movement here) but the reality is that this is an enormous social experiment. Who is potentially going to be hurt the most if it fails? Children.
I really like the way Asymmetric puts it:
Things like gay marriage don’t cause people to spontaneously combust, the only criteria for not trying a social experiment for many reformers…
It seems that many social reformers, on both sides of the aisle, use a similar litmus test for their ideals. “if it doesn’t destroy society, then it must be okay.” I think there’s a bit more to consider than that and I hope the rest of the country will be keeping a close eye on CA for the next few years.
Same sex couples have been raising children for a very, very long time. There has been lots of research on it, and the kids appear to be healthy, happy, and no worse the wear.
http://www.apa.org/pi/parent.html
Kids seem to have an advantage with two parents. Two parent families have twice the care takers and twice the bread winners. There are many great single parents, but I think it is a much bigger challenge.
What I think is crazy is the people that try to block same sex couples from adopting. The evidence is clear that kids would do a lot better with two moms or two dads, then no parents and in foster care.
There have only been a handful of studies that have tracked children into adulthood. A lot of work has yet to be done and if these marriages in CA stand, I’m sure a lot of social science profressions will be gathering data to try and explain the long-term effects.
I am not suggesting these children will be harmed, but what I am saying is that we need to be aware that this IS a social experiment and we need to carefully monitor the results.
Yeah, I disagree with the term “experiment” to describe this. To me, experiment evokes this definition:
“an operation or procedure carried out under controlled conditions in order to discover an unknown effect or law, to test or establish a hypothesis, or to illustrate a known law” m-w.com
Gays have been around forever, coupling and raising kids. There are just more out gays, and more of them raising kids. This isn’t a controlled experiment, it is just people living there lives.
They are allowing a major change in a social institution that has been in place for a very long time and the outcome is far from predictable. I call that an experiment, only there are several competing hypothesis.
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[...] fence. Writing there, Progressive Conservative accepts the course California has taken, while wondering with trepidation what the future holds for the children of gay couples. Truly, I suppose, we don’t know. I [...]
Hello, Progressive Conservative.
I don’t think that it’s a good idea based on other evidence; in particular:
1) Were all of the issues stated to be addressed then corrected, then they should be addressed by less intrusive means first. This measure proposes the most intrusive means first.
2) Even were the most intrusive means necessary to address the issues stated, then this measure addresses those issues for only a small sub-class, leaving the majority that face those same issues without remedy.
Foolishness.