Apr 12th, 2006
Will Not Disappear
A commentary in the St. Paul Pioneer Press following up on last week’s Senate Committee hearing:
With amendment or without, families are here to stay
by Craig Westover
(The link is to Westover’s blog where he has posted the op-ed.)
The message is, essentially, that gay families will continue to insist on equality. (My words, not his.) His framework is more like, look stop wasting your energy, this will happen like it or not.
I agree with the mention of the LGBT community as “well-organized,” but “well-funded”? Compared to the budgets of homo-hostile Focus on The Family and American Family Association, it’s laughable to describe efforts for marriage equality as “well-funded.”
Westover ends his piece by referencing my testimony at the hearing:
Amendment opponents spent little time in the Judiciary Committee hearing discussing litigation and the legal environment. Instead, they used their testimony to put a human face on committed same-sex couples and the problems they and their extended families face by being denied legal recognition for their relationships. Abigail Garner, author of a book about children of gay parents, spoke for all, saying, “My family will not disappear.”
Ultimately, it is the personal stories and not the legal nuances that remain vibrant and continue to irritate our thinking about same-sex marriage. The reality is families founded on same-sex relationships aren’t going to disappear. It is with those families that society must reconcile. When we do, the lawyers, legislators and justices will finally fall into line.