Comment & Debate
Brad Sears Director of the UCLA School of Law’s Williams Project on Sexual Orientation Law, and Alan Hirsch “Gay Marriage: Pro and Con.” Village Voice. December 2nd, 2003: “Wholesome though it sounds, the idea that children need a parent of each gender is curiously outdated. What is the male supposed to model? Aggression? Sports? Trucks? What should the female model? Nurturing? Femininity? Pink clothing? Insisting on gender-based role modeling makes sense only if there are viable models of gender to begin with. Yet psychologists and thinking laypeople increasingly conclude the opposite, that the idea of a model of maleness or femaleness is misleading and constraining…We want all parents to model compassion, responsibility, independence, and good citizenship. These virtues are androgynous.”
Kenji Yoshino. “Too good for Marriage.” NYTimes Op-ed. July 14th, 2006: “Like most arguments against gay marriage, this ‘role model’ argument assumes straight couples are better guides to life than gay couples. And like other blatantly anti-gay arguments, it falls apart under examination. In a decision last month in a case concerning gay foster parents, the Arkansas Supreme Court found no evidence that children raised by gay couples were disadvantaged compared with children raised by straight couples.”