Prop H8
The closing arguments in the Prop H8 federal trial will be heard today.
Proponents big argument is that gay people would not be good parents. I can hardly believe that teaching hatred and intolerance is considered a good parenting skill. And what about the gay kids? They can hear you, you know? Is this an example of how you would take care of children?
This is personal. It hurts when people get up in court or congress or on the campaign trail and say mean, ugly, untrue things about me. I can only imagine how deeply it hurts scared little gay children, hiding in plain sight with no one to tell or confide in.
Maybe that’s next. First we tell people who they can marry and then we tell them who is allowed to have children. I don’t really see much difference.
Eric Shaw Quinn 
I’m excited about your blog, ESQ!
Now then…about Prop H8…
Funny thing is, it is SO apparent that many straight people are woefully unqualified to be parents. Empirically, the majority of miserable children have come from straight households. Prior to the ’90’s history need look no further than the staggering failures of straight marriage and straight child rearing.
Alas, the arguments of bigots would be entertaining for their sheer lunacy if it weren’t for the danger of infecting the intellectually unprotected.
First of all I would like to say that parenting is never easy for anyone at the best of times and that whoever tells you that it is easy is a big fat liar and they are really scared of looking bad to everyone else. I can only say this because I am a parent myself. I came from a broken home with no self esteem and was left wandering the streets like an idiot because I didn’t have a clue what I was supposed to be doing. Just for the record, both my parents are straight, and they did not have a clue about raising a child. You can get the basics right about changing diapers and feeding the child when it is hungry, but where 99% of parents fall short is in the guidance and setting of the example for the child. Very few parents actually go out of their way to set their child on the right path, or to break cycles of neglect or abuse or bad decision making from their own childhoods, so history is doomed to repeat itself over and over. There should be some kind of common sense law that governs the ability to actually conceive a child, let alone bring one into the world. We live in this crazy bubble where we pretend that there are such things as normal families out there, which is the furthest thing from the truth…no normal…no guidance…nobody to hold your hand….what’s a kid to do? So if straight teens and adults are allowed to do whatever they want or don’t want to do with whomever they pop out of their respective wombs, then how could a gay couple make it any worse? All gay kids come from a man and a woman, and presumably from mostly straight men and women, so how could it differ to be raised by a gay man or woman? Put down your cell phone, your remote control, your beer, and your laptop and cherish your child while you still have the chance. Be a role model and a mentor, not just a walking bank machine, and live with your child in mind not just what’s next on the schedule. Life is hard at the best of times but bad parenting is just adding fuel to an already saturated fire. I chose to be a parent after a lot of soul searching, and the only way I could decide to do it was to make sure I was the type of person I want my son to be…and more. I don’t have to be anyone else’s version of what a father should be, I just have to be there with love and prepared to break any destructive cycle that comes up so that my son can live with confidence and intelligence and respect for all other people….including his gay dad.