What Are We Telling the Children?

Right-wing opponents of same-sex marriage, and other steps toward LGBT equality for that matter, often use their children as props--"We must protect our children" from the various sins that they perceive would be the result of legalizing these basic rights.

What are they REALLY telling their children?

This thoughtful column was written by a Los Aneles Times reporter who attended a "Project Marriage" rally that was beamed to 170 churches last Sunday night: (hat tip to PageOneQ)

This is more than a California ballot measure; it's part of a larger battle over rights, religion and culture.

And both sides understand the importance of public perception. That's why the first gay couples to publicly wed four years ago were non-threatening grandmotherly types. And why the battle to keep gays from marrying uses children as its standard bearer.

I could sense the emotional wrestling in the congregation Sunday night. I've felt it in conversations with friends and neighbors -- good-hearted folks, uncomfortable lining up behind such a restrictive measure but unwilling to sanction a cultural shift in the notion of marriage.

"I feel bad saying it, but it's just the way I was raised," one woman told me when I tried to interview her at Sunday's rally. "I don't want my children thinking gay marriage is normal. Because it goes against the Bible."

She feels strongly, she said. But she passed on the chance to take a yard sign or a flier. And she wouldn't give me her name. "I don't want anyone thinking I'm a bigot," she explained.

The reporter in me wanted to prod. What, exactly, is she trying to protect her children from? Being recruited by the "homosexual lobby"? Learning tolerance for alternative lifestyles? Rejection of their parents' values?

But the mother in me had a different thought, as I watched mothers cradling babies in the pews, and grade-schoolers scrambling around the church lobby.

I imagine that some of those little girls will grow up and make families with women, and some sons will fall in love with men.

I wonder what message are we really sending them now? And what will their parents tell them then?

Polls show that Proposition 8 is currently on track to passing, which would overrule recent the California Supreme Court ruling and post the discriminatory prohibition of same-sex marriage into the state's constitution.

Are Californian's really so insecure in their marriages that they feel threatend by the opportunity for same-sex couples to tie the know legally? Are they so blinded by right-wing rhetoric and blind adherance to tradition that they would allow this to happen? Is there such a widespread misunderstanding of the love of Christ that this hate and fear driven initiative would actually receive enough votes to pass?

Please join me in praying that it doesn't.....for the children's sake.