Think of your family, think of the love, the support, and the relationships within it. If that doesn’t sound like your family then hopefully you can think of a family in your life that has all of that. You wouldn’t want someone to break that apart, would you? Well some people do.

According to the US Census there were over 115,000 families with same-sex parents in 2010. As a son of two moms and a member of one of those 115,000 households I’ve seen first hand the love that my parents have for one another and the support that they give each other.
They’ve been together for about twelve years now. They’ve only been married for the last two, because they couldn’t legally get married for the longest time. It makes me happy to see them happy together and I’m glad they have each other. This is why I find it odd, and kind of worrisome that people who have never met my parents don’t think they should be allowed to be together. I don’t like coconut, but that doesn’t mean that if I see someone eating an Almond Joy I’m going to go slap it out of their hands and act all disgusted or try to outlaw coconut.

Some people’s objections to gay marriage center around the idea that a gay family doesn’t provide adequate parenting for children. In a way, I almost find that insulting, because I think that my parents have done a good job of raising me and I think I am a very well-adjusted person. I’m not some sort of emotional train wreck and I don’t feel any gaping hole in my life from not having a father in my life.

That’s not to say that we’re perfect, or that we never get into arguments. Believe me —like most parent-child relationships— we have our fair share of arguments. But overall I think my parents have done a good job of raising me. Bad parenting, and bad relationships are universal. My family might be a little different, but we’re a lot more stable than some “normal” families I’ve seen. This isn’t just my personal experience either. A 2010 study in the journal Pediatrics showed that children of same-sex couples scored better in a number of behavioral and academic tests.

Another objection that people have to gay marriage is that it violates tradition. Tradition is, much like many things in society, a very fluid and nebulous concept. It can mean wildly different things to different people and it always changes. So assuming that everyone should abide by your definition of tradition is a little bit overreaching. Tradition has also been used as a justification for many horrible things, such as slavery and segregation. I wouldn’t exactly call “tradition” a concrete argument.

It does bring up a good point though. People who oppose marriage equality are on the wrong side of history, much like those who opposed the civil rights movement, or the women’s suffrage movement. A Washington Post-ABC News poll said that 59 percent of Americans surveyed support gay marriage, including three quarters of Americans younger than thirty. Public opinion is changing and it wouldn’t be a stretch of the imagination to see people who vehiemently oppose gay marriage and people who oppose interracial marriage held in the same contempt by society a decade or so from now.

What does this mean for you? Aheterosexual person whose ambivalent about gay marriage or isn’t sure what to think. Honestly, it doesn’t mean all that much. Just because gay marriage is legalized doesn’t mean that you’ll be forced to marry someone of the same sex, or that your marriage is suddenly worthless. It just means that you should treat others the way you would want to be treated and you should let love through, regardless of who’s giving or receiving it.


Works Cited
Craighill, Peyton M., and Scott Clement. "Support for Same-sex Marriage Hits New High." Washington Post. The Washington Post, 05 Mar. 2014. Web. 2 June 2014.
Loquist, Daphne. "Same-Sex Couple Househoulds." Same-Sex Couple Households (2011): 1-4. Census.gov. U.S Census Bureau, 3 Sept. 2011. Web. 2 June 2014.
Zorn, Eric. "Change of Subject: The Top Six Arguments against Gay Marriage (and Why They All Fail)." Chicago Tribune. The Chicago Tribune, 19 May 2012. Web. 08 June 2014.