Perry v. Schwarzenegger: California becomes the latest battleground for Gay Marriage Rights
The court explained: “Within the concept of liberty protected by Article I, Paragraph 1 of the New Jersey Constitution (which mirrors the rights in the US Constitution) are core rights of such overriding value that we consider them to be fundamental. Determining whether a particular claimed right is fundamental is a task that requires both caution and foresight. When engaging in a substantive due process analysis under the Fourteenth Amendment, the United States Supreme Court has instructed that it must ‘exercise the utmost care’ before finding new rights, which place important social issues beyond public debate, ‘lest the liberty protected by the Due Process Clause be subtly transformed into the policy preferences of the members of the Court.’ (Washington v.Glucksberg). In searching for the meaning of “liberty” under Article I, Paragraph 1, we must resist the temptation of seeing our own strongly-felt opinions and beliefs. Under the guise of newly found rights, we must be careful not to impose our personal value system on eight-and-one-half million people, thus bypassing the democratic process as the primary means of effecting social change in this State. That being said, this Court will never abandon its responsibility to protect the fundamental rights of all of our citizens, even the most alienated and disfavored, no matter how strong the winds of popular opinion may blow.
Despite the rich diversity of this State, the tolerance and goodness of its people, and the many recent advances made by gays and lesbians toward achieving social acceptance and equality under the law, we cannot find that a right to same-sex marriage is so deeply rooted in the traditions, history, and conscience of the people of this State that it ranks as a fundamental right. When looking for the source of our rights under the New Jersey Constitution, we need not look beyond our borders. Nevertheless, we do take note that no jurisdiction, not even Massachusetts, has declared that there is a fundamental right to same-sex marriage under the federal or its own constitution.”
Nevertheless, the Court had to examine whether those laws that deny to committed same-sex couples both the right to and the rights of marriage afforded to heterosexual couples offend the equal protection principles of the state constitution. The NJ state constitution states that every person possesses the “unalienable rights” to enjoy life, liberty, and property, and to pursue happiness. Although the document nowhere expressly states that every person shall be entitled to the equal protection of the laws, the courts have construed Article I to embrace that fundamental principle. The first paragraph of Article I “protects against injustice and against the unequal treatment of those who should be treated alike.” So when a statute is challenged on the ground that it does not apply evenhandedly to similarly situated people, New Jersey’s equal protection jurisprudence requires that the legislation, in distinguishing between two classes of people, bear a substantial relationship to a legitimate governmental purpose. The court concluded that it could find no legitimate public need for an unequal legal scheme of benefits and privileges that disadvantages committed same-sex couples. Hence it held that there was a clear equal protection violation in that committed same-sex couples must be afforded on equal terms the same rights and benefits enjoyed by married opposite-sex couples.
Having unanimously come to the agreement that current state law regarding marriage as between a man and a woman is unconstitutional with respect to the equal protection of same sex couples, the court was divided as to what remedy was required. It noted that the equal protection requirement leaves the Legislature with two options: the Legislature could simply amend the marriage statutes to include same-sex couples, or it could create a separate statutory structure, such as a civil union, as Connecticut and Vermont have done.
Plaintiffs did not want a separate statutory scheme. They wanted full rights to marriage. They argued that they could not be “made whole” by a statutory scheme even if it granted them equal social and financial benefits. They argued that the only thing that would “make them whole” would be if they are allowed to call their committed relationships by the same name as heterosexual couples call their relationships – by the name of “marriage.” They maintained that a parallel legal structure, called by a name other than marriage, which provides the social and financial benefits they have sought, would be a separate-but-equal classification that offends the state constitution (equal protection).
From plaintiffs’ standpoint, the title of marriage is an intangible right, without which they are consigned to second-class citizenship. Plaintiffs weren’t just seeking simple legally equal standing but were also seeking social acceptance, which in their view is the last step toward true equality.
Three justices (the minority) argued that the only constitutional remedy is the amendment of state marriage law to include same-sex couples. [Note that several of the NJ Supreme Court judges were appointed by the openly-gay Governor Jim McGreevey… aka, Governor Mc Shcheevy or Governor McSleezy). In the end, the New Jersey legislature opted not to legalize gay marriage, but instead passed a bill legalizing civil unions. They decided to create an appropriate statutory scheme. A year later, a commission was setup by the Legislature to examine the new Civil Union law to see how it was working, and to look at the possibility of same-sex marriage. The report came back unanimously recommending that the Legislature legalize gay marriage. New Jersey's Governor Jon Corzine has said he would sign a same-sex marriage bill, but wanted to wait until 2009 after the presidential election. “The Freedom of Religion and Equality in Civil Marriage” Act was passed by the NJ Senate Judiciary committee in a close 7-6 vote. But the bill was rejected by the full Senate the following day. Governor Chris Christie has said that he will not sign a marriage equality bill while he is governor. So at this time, New Jersey recognizes civil unions as the appropriate scheme to recognize gay unions and to provide the legal rights and duties that that they want.
So, is the right to marry one of the same sex a fundamental right here in this country, under our US Constitution? I think that answer will only come out if and when the Supreme Court agrees to hear this case. I think the case, for those who wish to preserve marriage as a traditional union between a man and a woman, to honor the sacred role and fundamental purpose it serves our society, will hang on whether the need to define marriage as between a man and a woman serves a compelling and legitimate state (government) issue. If this can be shown, then courts will be able to legally explain why even a fundamental right might need to be denied. Of course, I would have thought that the state might want to recognize that special union between a man and a woman because it honors their intention to start a family and will overwhelmingly result in children. And propagation of society is certainly a compelling state interest. But homosexual judges obviously don’t see this as a compelling enough state interest. My bad. My charge to people who are passionate on this subject is to get involved and make your voices known as to the reasons you believe traditional marriage needs to be protected. I believe ProtectMarriage.com brought up some excellent arguments in their case against Perry to defend Proposition 8, but they clearly did not go far enough. I would have brought up some additional arguments, such as some scientific rationale to defend marriage and to explain why children and adolescents will be harmed by the social change which will result when traditional gender and family roles become blurred, and some common sense parenting concerns.
But first I might challenge homosexuals to define precisely what compelling state interest is served by allowing them to “marry.” For there certainly can be no greater compelling interest than encouraging propagation among married couples. Homosexual couples will, and already have (see Perry) challenged the traditional notion that only heterosexual couples can procreate. With artificial insemination and guys like David Crosby out there, there is nothing that prevents lesbians from becoming artificially inseminated. (Getting pregnant the “new fashion” way). Furthermore, many homosexual couples can adopt. But this doesn’t take away from the fact that homosexual couples cannot procreate together. It’s nature’s way of saying “it ain’t right.” And it doesn’t take away from the fact that homes with both a father and a mother offer children what they need for proper development. There is plenty of evidence to show that children need both parents, both sexes, in the home. Children need to be nurtured by parents of both sexes if they are to learn to function in a society made up of both sexes. Is it wise to have a social policy that encourages family arrangements that deny children such essentials? Gays are not necessarily bad parents, nor will they necessarily make their children gay, but they cannot provide a set of parents that includes both a male and a female.
Homosexuals will argue (as they did in Perry) that denying them the rights to enter into the covenant of marriage, like heterosexuals can, is a violation of their civil rights. In Perry they argued that just as it was wrong to prohibit blacks and whites from inter-marrying, it is also wrong to prohibit homosexuals access to the rights and benefits of “marriage.” There is no doubt that for many years, state laws prevented interracial marriage and the Supreme Court was correct in determining that these laws were unconstitutional and in violation of Equal Protection laws. Homosexuals claim that they are being discriminated against in their civil rights for “being what nature made them.” They say they can’t help being “what they are” (homosexual) any more than a black person can help being black. What they are claiming is that sodomy is a natural act that should be protected by the same laws and in the same manner that protect persons distinguished by race.
But this argument is inherently flawed. However, skin color and sexual behavior are entirely different. The first is an inborn characteristic while the second is behaviorally based (not genetic) and has everything to do with individual character, moral choices, and society’s basic rules of conduct. If civil rights laws can be used to justify and sanction the behaviors of homosexuals, where does it stop? Next child molesters will demand rights to work in daycare centers and work in the public school system. But we really don’t even have to go here. The Equal Protection clause of the Constitution historically has been viewed to respect those regardless of race, color, religion, or national origin. Those who designed the 14th Amendment certainly didn’t have in mind the protection of those who with different sexual preferences or orientation. After all, national opinion has always shown repugnance to preferences such polygamy and incest, which, like homosexuality, are based on a deviant sexual scheme.
[Note: Historically, the Supreme Court has attached “suspect class” status (status which triggers the greatest judicial scrutiny – strict scrutiny) to racial minorities and religious groups. It has not been willing to extend suspect-class status to sexual orientation, nor even recognize it for intermediate scrutiny. The lowest scrutiny is all that is required. Strict Scrutiny analysis = the enactment at issue which classifies groups of persons, say by race, must be able to stand the highest scrutiny for constitutionality; it must be “narrowly-tailored to further a compelling state interest.” The lowest analysis, Rational Basis scrutiny, requires only that the enactment be “rationally related to a legitimate state interest”].
Homosexuals will make the argument (again, as they did in Perry) that same-sex marriages serve a state interest because they enable gays and lesbians to live in committed relationships. Well, there are perfectly able to do that today. There is nothing stopping them other than their unwillingness to do so because it officially is not termed a “marriage.” They will also argue (again, as they did in Perry) that the link between marriage and procreation is not as strong as it used to be. While that might be true, it is irrelevant since the overwhelming number of married couples plan on conceiving and having a family. Adam Kolasinsky wrote in 2004: “Until recently, the primary purpose of marriage, in every society around the world, has been procreation. In the 20th century, Western societies have downplayed the procreative aspect of marriage, much to our detriment. As a result, the happiness of the parties to the marriage, rather than the good of the children or the social order, has become its primary end, with disastrous consequences. When married persons care more about themselves than their responsibilities to their children and society, they become more willing to abandon these responsibilities, leading to broken homes, a plummeting birthrate, and countless other social pathologies that have become rampant over the last 40 years. Homosexual marriage is not the cause for any of these pathologies, but it will exacerbate them, as the granting of marital benefits to a category of sexual relationships that are necessarily sterile can only widen the separation between marriage and procreation.”
Is homosexuality a “choice” or is it embedded in our genetics? I would like to pull a “Judge Walker” right now and state that the argument for a genetic basis is flimsy and without much merit. Homosexuality is much too common for it to be considered a genetic aberration (and by “aberrant” I mean “deviating from that which is normal or desirable”). There is no rhyme or reason for who is gay or who is “turning gay.” That flies in the face of genetics which shows that aberrations just don’t spontaneously arise so frequently and indiscriminately. Homosexuals say they “know they aren’t meant to be straight” and they claim that homosexuality is just as “normal” as heterosexuality and all one has to do is look at the animal kingdom. Here are my thoughts on that:
(1). Those animals who try to come together sexually will not reproduce, so their individual traits of homosexuality will be removed from the immediate gene pool. If a farmer who lived in England was able to genetically-modified his male cow (bull) so that it would be completely resistant to Mad Cow disease, he would indeed have an animal with superior survivability abilities. He would count on that bull to propagate that desirable genetic trait through sexual reproduction. If, however, that bull had no interest in female cows but rather enjoyed being a Brokeback Cow, then its “superior” genetics have reached a dead end. Also consider if this bull was the last male of its species. What if the future of his kind depended on his coupling with female cows and what if he just wasn’t interested in them? Brokeback Cow represents, as I like to say, an evolutionary cul-de-sac. Nature might have homosexual members but there are severe consequences.
(2). The fact that homosexuality is a “common” aberration does not stop it from being wrong. For example, a rise in the number of child molestations in a city does not stop it from being an aberrant crime. No judicial body would accept child molestation as acceptable conduct because it has become “common” and more widespread in society. I would also use the example of lying. But that wouldn’t be a good one. Politicians have been doing it so commonly and so insidiously that they don’t consider anything wrong with it anymore.
(3). The fact that homosexuality is a “common” aberration and becoming more popular (as opposed to the animal kingdom where it is still very uncommon) suggests that it is associated more with “recruitment” and experimentation rather than genetics.
(4). We should not necessarily look to the animal kingdom for what is “normal” and “aberrant.” First of all, God created us specifically in his image, (as man and woman, to have dominion over all the beasts and animals. Genesis 1:28. Second of all, animals engage in “common” things like infanticide, cannibalism, and abandonment. Just because animals do something doesn’t make it right or wrong.
Homosexuality is certainly more behavioral than genetic. If it were genetic, there wouldn’t be all the “experimentation” and “fluidity” (going from one choice to another) that is associated with it. Also, the entire genetic code has been sequenced. Not only have scientists not found the “gay gene,” but they still haven’t shown a plausible genetic explanation for the preference. Maybe there is a higher level of female hormone in the gay man? Maybe there are certain differences in brain matter? There are all kinds of theories and suggestions. Two things are for sure, (1) Homosexuality is condemned in the Bible, and (2) if there indeed is gene for homosexuality, the theory which guides how species develop and adapt – Darwin’s Theory – will explain how it needs to be weeded out of the gene pool. First, it is not news to anyone that the Bible, even in its earliest books, refers to homosexuality as an “abomination.” (Genesis 19: 1-13). Leviticus 18:22 says: "Do not lie with a man as one lies with a women; that is detestable." Leviticus 20:13 says: "If a man lies with a man as one lies with a woman, both of them have done what is detestable." The word for "abomination" is used five times in Leviticus 18 and is a strong term of disapproval, implying that something is abhorrent to God. The same Creator that gave us our fundamental rights also set limits on them.
In Genesis 1:28 we learn that God created Adam and Eve “in his own image” - as male and female. Not as man and man. Not as woman and woman. He created them to be capable of procreation, and then he blessed them and commanded them to “Be fruitful and multiply.” Again, the God who taught us to love one another and to love thyself, and who gave us “right reason” through our inherent goodness and our ability to use our mind to reason which is the very basis of Judeo-Christian laws and our national laws as well, also teaches us that man is meant to lie down with a woman.
As we all are aware, the most important function of every species is to preserve its existence. In other words, it needs to be able to procreate and preserve itself. Under Darwin's process of natural selection, all living things are continually adapting, usually genetically, to their natural environment in order to have a better chance of surviving. The weakest link (the most poorly adapted) will die off while the strongest, most robust, and versatile will survive and go on to mate and propagate the species. With each such “selection event,” the genetic make-up of the species becomes improved and adapted for survivability. In other words, those members of the species which are best able to survive and reproduce under certain circumstances will be the ones to pass on their genes and traits most successfully. The evolution of species is therefore a series of events dominated by strong genes and demanding environments (“selection pressure”). Darwin’s theory of “survival of the fittest” and “survival of the species” therefore explains how genes which weaken the species will be quickly rooted out. And the gene which prevents the species from procreating would be exactly the gene that is weeded out first. Again, homosexuality is an evolutionary cul-de-sac.
Marriage is the basic, most important and fundamental institution of our ordered civil society. Its primary purpose is for procreation and proper child-rearing, for stability and for the type of education and modeling that enables young men and women to become independent from their parents to become decent, respective, moral, productive, well-adjusted members of society. States and government should be trying to protect its integrity and not destroy and undermine it. Everything right in society stems from a solid and productive marriage and family union. Marriages between a man and a woman are on a completely different scale than unions involving a man and a man or a woman and a woman. There is nothing, and I mean, nothing, that can compare to a relationship that involves creating another human being, realizing that it is your own flesh and blood and endowed with the traits and characteristics that were you at an early age. Creating and bringing a child into the world reminds each couple that there is a God and that just as there is no words that can describe or quantify the love you have for your child, there is no end to the love that God has for his people. Children are a gift from God, blessed upon a couple that has entered into a covenant of marriage and accepting the responsibilities that God has set out. There is nothing that can compare to the marital bond as it grows with the growing fetus and then with the growing child. There is something special and natural when two people can come together, in love, and create another human being, representing a perfect union of both Mom and Dad. Gays and lesbians can’t truly know all the things that make up a true family unit… They can’t know the sorrow and frustration of miscarriages and the difficulty of conception. They can’t know the dark side of pregnancy.. post-partum depression, permanent body changes, scarring. These are things that marriages and families are built on. They are built on a union that recognizes that they usually want and plan to build something more important and more precious than just a coupling. Marriages are meant for this kind of commitment and for this traditional union. To say that marriages can be allowed for just anyone simply serves to dilute that sacred distinction that marriage holds in the community and in the eyes of God.
Plaintiffs suggest that domestic partnerships cannot substitute for marriage because domestic partnerships do not have the same social and historical meaning as marriage and that much of the value of marriage comes from its social meaning. The “social and historical meaning” associated with marriage comes from the traditional adherence and respect given to this institution, as well as to the religious implications associated with it. Marriages are looked upon as “sacred.” What I am trying to say is that the status associated with this relationship of “marriage” has been EARNED. It has been earned by historical observance of the traditional roles that marriage embraces. These roles have been ordained as being those necessary for a moral and ordered civil society. Gays and lesbians are seeking to benefit from the status of marriage without having to observe the rules that have supported this “sacred union” in the first place. It would be like gays and lesbians demanding to have the right to join a church, even though each church might wish to respect certain virtues and rules for its congregation and membership. The worth of a title is only as valuable as the collection of people that can claim that title. The significance of religion on the marital union must not be diminished. It must not be diluted. To do so will be to dilute the sacredness for all.
The Heritage Foundation wrote a good piece on marriage back in 2004 and I think one section in particular is worth sharing here:
“For thousands of years, on the basis of experience, tradition, and legal precedent, every society and every major religious faith have upheld marriage as a unique relationship by which a man and a woman are joined together for the primary purpose of forming and maintaining a family. This overwhelming consensus results from the fact that the union of man and woman is apparent and manifest in the most basic and evident truths of human nature.
Marriage is the formal recognition of this relationship by society and its laws. While individual marriages are recognized by government, the institution of marriage pre-exists and is antecedent to the institution of government, which in turn presupposes and depends on the institution of marriage. Society's interest in uniquely elevating the status of marriage among human relationships is that marriage is the necessary foundation of the family, and thus necessary for societal existence and well-being.
The basic building block of society is the family, which is the primary institution through which children are raised, nurtured, and educated, and develop into adults. Marriage is the cornerstone of the family: It produces children, provides them with mothers and fathers, and is the framework through which relationships among mothers, fathers, and children are established and maintained. Only in the context of family built on the foundation of marriage can the sometimes competing needs and interests of men, women, and children be harmonized.
Because of its characteristic relationship with the family, marriage is uniquely beneficial to society. Based on existing studies comparing two-parent and single-parent households, social science overwhelmingly demonstrates that children do far better when they are raised by two married parents in a stable family relationship and that children raised in other household structures are subject to significantly increased risk of harm.
Evidence further suggests that one reason children do better in a married household is not just the stability of having two parents, but the fact that a male and a female parent each bring distinctive strengths, perspectives, and characteristics to the family unit that benefit both children and the parents. Although we have little information concerning children raised in households with same-sex parents, what we do know is that marriage between a man and a woman provides unique social, economic, and health benefits for children, adults, and society in general.
Moreover, because of the shared obligations and generational relationships that accrue with marriage, the institution brings significant stability, continuity, and meaning to human relationships and plays an important role in transferring basic cultural knowledge and civilization to future generations.
In the end, despite all the changes that law and cultural trends have wrought concerning marriage--despite the laws concerning prenuptial agreements, divorce, tax, and property that treat marriage as a contract--it has never before been, nor is it now completely, the case that marriage is a mere contract. Society has changed the form, but never the substance, of marriage; and it is the substance of marriage--its very nature, definition, and purpose--that creates and justifies its unique position as a social institution and continues to give lawmakers strong and reasonable arguments for upholding traditional marriage and protecting it in law.”
Right now, states are allowing marriage for homosexuals. What will stop the polygamist from demanding his equal marital rights? What will stop Uncle Joe from marrying his lovely niece Sarah? The same arguments that plaintiffs used in Perry to tear down the sanctity of traditional marriage equally apply to these other candidates. If marriage is no longer “traditional” enough (their argument was that marriage has transformed so effectively that traditional gender and marital roles no longer exist) to prevent homosexuals from tying the knot, then it isn’t “traditional” enough to prevent polygamists and members of the in-breeding society to tie the knot as well. Homosexuals have started this country on a slippery slope that will end with complete moral decay and destruction of all traditional notions for a moral society. Marriage needs to be reserved for those couples, a man and a woman, who follow the traditional plan of coming together to eventually start a family. It is a blessed union designed to produce fruit, to perpetuate family trees. It is the most honorable and noble of life’s deeds.
Allowing gay marriage will erode the sanctity that attaches to the sacred union. It will make a mockery of the sacred covenant of marriage, which was intended to foster procreation and tight family units. It risks enshrining into law the notion that sexual love is the sole criterion for marriage. If the state must recognize a marriage between two men simply because they love one another, then it must also do so for polygamists and the like. How can the state prevent this scenario? By declaring that the purpose of marriage is for procreation and protecting traditional marriage. That’s how. If sexual love becomes the perceived purpose of marriage, it will lead to marital chaos. Legalizing homosexual marriage would allow a tiny minority of people to change long-held moral codes and the social commitments that sustain it.
I think an important issue that the court needs to hear regarding social change, especially on the magnitude that we are talking about (redefining traditional gender and social roles), is how such change will impact young children. Openly-gay Judge Walker was not able to appreciate the difference between a man and a woman raising a child or a same-sex couple. He was not able to appreciate the inherent greater value that comes from a heterosexual union providing proper role models. He discredited the arguments and evidence presented by proponents, including the information presented by notable social psychologist David Blankenhorn, which showed that children fare better in stable traditional homes with a mother and a father, and not with two Daddies or two Mommies. In fact, Walker wrote: “Children do not need to be raised by a male parent and a female parent to be well-adjusted, and having both a male and a female parent does not increase the likelihood that a child will be well-adjusted.” Aside from the psychological aspect of being raised in a homosexual home where traditional gender and role models are blurred, there is the simple inability of children and adolescents to process change and consequence properly because of their limited brain development.
Research conducted in 2004 at Cornell University with the National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH), using MRI analysis on the adolescent brain, supports what some parents have long suspected - that the teenager’s brain is different than the adult brain. The research showed that the teen brain is not a finished product, but rather a work in progress. Up until fairly recently, scientists believed that the brain was fully mature (that is, learning and processing pathways were laid down) by age 10-12. However, this recent study at Cornell shows that the greatest changes to the parts of the brain that are responsible for functions such as self-control, judgment, emotions, and organization occur between puberty and adulthood. This, they believe, may help to explain certain teenage behavior that adults can find frustrating, such as poor decision-making, recklessness, and emotional outbursts.
During the teen years, it turns out, the brain undergoes a wave of development that scientists were not aware of before. The brain undergoes a wave of overproduction of gray matter in the mid to later teen years (just as it did in the first 18 months of life) and then uses this opportunity to form new or re-enforce old learning pathways (“use it or lose it” kind of thing). It is explained that this pruning process makes the brain more efficient. Add onto this finding the fact that not all parts of the adolescent brain mature at the same time and then interact with one another as they do upon full maturation (in the 20s). Because not all parts of the adolescent brain mature at the same time, the adolescent may be at a disadvantage in certain situations, especially in areas of emotion and processing feelings and appreciating consequences. For example, the limbic areas of the brain, which are thought to regulate emotions and are associated with an adolescent's lowered sensitivity to risk and propensity for novelty and thrill seeking, mature earlier than the frontal lobes, which are thought to be responsible for self-regulation, judgment, reasoning, problem-solving, and impulse control. This difference in maturational timing across the brain can result in impulsive decisions or actions, a disregard for consequences, and emotional reactions that can put teenagers at serious risk in ways that may surprise even the adolescents themselves. There is, however, tremendous individual variability among adolescents, the pathways they follow, and the outcomes they experience. For example, the emotional and physical energy that is characteristic of adolescence can be channeled into sports, academics, music, art, and various causes as well as in negative directions that produce adverse outcomes, including alcohol use. Experiences that promote self-reliance, independence, and self-regulation usually involve some risk.
The point is that adolescents, let alone elementary school children, lack the mental processing ability to appreciate deviation from social norms or to process the consequences of conduct that might harm or confuse them in their more mature years. Confusion is an adolescent’s worse enemy. Any child psychologist will stress that young children and adolescents need good role models in their lives. They will imprint and adopt what is around them. Don’t let Judge Walker convince you otherwise. These facts and findings add new dimensions to the issues surrounding and facing young people. These should serve to concern and challenge our policy makers to do better on their behalf, and not to add to the conflicting and confusing messages they already receive in the public schools and in our morally decaying society.
My final concern is over the educational changes that will need to take place to elevate homosexuality to a protected and respected lifestyle choice. We all know that the public school system will want to “educate” and “indoctrinate” everyone on this subject. They will want to take class time away from real learning to devote to additional lessons on “diversity.” Who knows, maybe we will even have a “Gay Pride” Month and students can draw rainbows all over the place. I absolutely don’t want the school system to teach my children about homosexuality. I don’t trust the school system to teach this topic appropriately. Why is that? Because that same school system is not allowed to acknowledge religion and quite possibly, not even allowed to teach morality. No public institution should even approach the subject of homosexuality until each child has a strong religious foundation, a strong sense of family and community, and a strong foundation and education in science so they can evaluate that subject in the context of religion, morality, and science. And that rarely happens until later in the high school curriculum, if not even later than that.
I would condemn any school system which tries to teach homosexuality as a healthy alternative to a heterosexual lifestyle because that would put the lesson at odds with my religious principles. If the school attempts to preempt my children from learning what the Bible teaches them, then I would have a problem under the First Amendment and my rights to exercise my religion and to raise my children as I deem appropriate. We have a serious disconnect in this country between people who want to live their lives in an unstructured “anything goes” way and those who see the benefit from structure and discipline. I think we’ve already seen what history has to say about the former. Many times, as a matter of fact. I just think it is heinous and irresponsible for the supposed highest thinkers in our country, our judges, to give support and credence to their cause. They are taking us from the back roads right to the highway to hell. Personally, I’m just fed up with society and with judicial activism which continually want to root out tradition in favor of progressivism. How much harder do they want to make it on parents to work, contribute to society, hold their families together and raise their children properly? The overwhelming majority of the country would love to be able to raise their children in a society that respects decent wholesome values. We don’t appreciate the constant struggles to navigate our children through the decay they face every day in an “anything goes” environment. As I’ve discussed earlier, their brains aren’t even equipped to process the decay properly. How much psychological confusion do children need to bear?
