I feel somewhat like Mormon, when he says that he can’t
write even a 100th part of the things that are written. There really
is so much that I have learned this past week that I could babble on for hours
but I will spare you the details and try to share the key points that would be
meaningful and worthwhile for you!
I want to start first of all talking about what I learned
last Friday. The topic of the class was about the Supreme Court cases that were
held this past year. The first was about Proposition 8. For those who do not
know what that is, it simply states the following, “Only marriage between a man
and a woman is valid or recognized in California.” Despite the fact that this
proposition had been passed not once by Californians, but TWICE, the Supreme
Court decided to hear the case. It was a gay couple versus some organizations
that were in favor of Prop 8. Well, the cases were presented and the Supreme
Court Justices basically all agreed that the most important factor in approving
homosexual relationships would be to determine the affects the relationship
would have on the children. Their main
source of evidence/research content was an official brief published by the
American Psychological Association (APA) in 2005 that claimed, “Not a single
study has found children of lesbian or gay parents to be disadvantaged in any
significant respect relative to children of heterosexual parents.” Quite a
lofty claim. How many of you agree with that statement? How many of you
disagree? The Supreme Court’s decision was that the matter was a state issue
and that it was the governor’s choice to enforce the law or not. Sadly enough,
Governor Brown, is choosing not to enforce this law.
In response to the APA brief, a man named Loren Marks, Ph.D.
CFLE (Certified Family Life Educator), wrote his analysis of the brief
presented as proof that homosexual relationships are the same as heterosexual
relationships when it comes to raising children. In our class we were required
to read his lengthy, yet well informing, article entitled “Same-sex parenting and children’s outcomes: A closer examination of the
American psychological association’s brief on lesbian and gay parenting.”
Marks makes very valid points about the flaws in the research that was
conducted, on which the APA brief was based, including that (1) There was only
one man conducting the study and his research appears not to have been peer
reviewed, (2) Most of the homosexual relationships were being compared to
families comprising mostly of single-parent (mostly single-white women) homes and
(3) Many of the research didn't even study the effects on children. Now I’m not
saying the Supreme Court justices are uneducated but isn't it important to
first not only look at the research but how it was collected but what exactly
the data is saying/suggesting, instead of taking one professional’s word for
it? Since when do scientists take someone’s word for it? No! You need multiple
experiments with the same results before you can make that official of a claim…
Are you bored yet? :D I’m just getting started!
The second case that was presented to the Supreme Court was
about the Defense of Marriage Act or DOMA, which basically states that the US
government will only consider marriage to be between a man and a woman and that
the government will protect marriage between a man and a woman (To view the official
document click here).
And since it is an official documented act, it is the responsibility of the
President to be the CEO and make sure that the laws of the land are being
carried out. Well, can you guess what happened? Obama, didn't want to defend
that statement. How can you just say no to the law? You were sworn in as
president of the United States and swore to protect the people and respect
their voices. Hence we are called a DEMOCRACY! Gay and lesbians make up 0.6% of
the population yet their voice gets heard over the rest of the 68% of traditional
(ma and pa) households (US Census Bureau, 2010). Is there something wrong with
this picture?
You can bet I was pretty fired up about politics after that
class…
The question now becomes, “Where do I stand?” and “Will I act and defend what I believe? Or
will I sit around, waiting to be acted upon?” The choice is yours.
