Tuesday, March 23, 2004
Child’s Play
Looks as if the flood the zone coverage of the gay marriage debate has subsided. (Can it be a debate when only one side is covered in the press? Remember, so long ago, when it was about civil unions?)
Whilst discussing the issue with family, batting it back and forth between the squirrels whom run on the wheel in my head, and just plain wishing it would go away, my wife and son were playing Rescue Heroes. Somehow the game evolved into the Rescue Heroes getting married. It began with Billy Blazes marrying Wendy Waters and Jack Hammer marrying Ariel Flyer.
What came next was Jake Justice marrying Bob Buoy. The first reaction my wife had, and I had when the story was related to me, is to say, “No, Matthew, boys don’t marry boys. They marry girls.” Instead, what we did is what we do with many of the utterances from his mouth that we find un-reinforcable. We chose to ignore it. (Never mind the sounds from other body parts.)
But it did open a line of thinking. If we do tell him that marriage is between a boy and a girl, does he repeat that in school only to be told otherwise by another authority figure, his teacher? Would a teacher tell him otherwise? Should a teacher tell him otherwise?
And this leads me to contemplate whether it is plausible that a teacher would be forced to do so. After all, if the courts of the land legislate, I mean, rule that same-sex marriages are equal to opposite sex ones, then what will stop the same sex marriage activists from using that ruling to determine the behavior and curriculum of the entity receiving government dollars (or in other words, our taxes)? After all, this is the strategy being pursued against the Boy Scouts of America by the gay activists after the courts ruled BSA could refuse to allow gay scoutmasters.
And if my son attends a school that receives tax dollars, wouldn’t the teacher have to enforce the equality of the marriages as a result of the court ruling(s) and tell him that boys can marry boys?
Which brings me back to telling my son that marriage is between a boy and a girl (or a mommy and daddy). For simplicity sake and for sheer numbers sake (the percent of married couples who are of opposite sexes greatly out numbers those of the same sex), it is what I will tell him.
My worry is for my child to be told otherwise by different figures in authority (agents of the State?) and to be singled out for expressing this view. But what do I do, allow the same-sex activists and their subsequent proponents in the courtroom to stifle my parenting?
Or maybe, I’ll just treat the whole episode as one of child’s play.
Looks as if the flood the zone coverage of the gay marriage debate has subsided. (Can it be a debate when only one side is covered in the press? Remember, so long ago, when it was about civil unions?)
Whilst discussing the issue with family, batting it back and forth between the squirrels whom run on the wheel in my head, and just plain wishing it would go away, my wife and son were playing Rescue Heroes. Somehow the game evolved into the Rescue Heroes getting married. It began with Billy Blazes marrying Wendy Waters and Jack Hammer marrying Ariel Flyer.
What came next was Jake Justice marrying Bob Buoy. The first reaction my wife had, and I had when the story was related to me, is to say, “No, Matthew, boys don’t marry boys. They marry girls.” Instead, what we did is what we do with many of the utterances from his mouth that we find un-reinforcable. We chose to ignore it. (Never mind the sounds from other body parts.)
But it did open a line of thinking. If we do tell him that marriage is between a boy and a girl, does he repeat that in school only to be told otherwise by another authority figure, his teacher? Would a teacher tell him otherwise? Should a teacher tell him otherwise?
And this leads me to contemplate whether it is plausible that a teacher would be forced to do so. After all, if the courts of the land legislate, I mean, rule that same-sex marriages are equal to opposite sex ones, then what will stop the same sex marriage activists from using that ruling to determine the behavior and curriculum of the entity receiving government dollars (or in other words, our taxes)? After all, this is the strategy being pursued against the Boy Scouts of America by the gay activists after the courts ruled BSA could refuse to allow gay scoutmasters.
And if my son attends a school that receives tax dollars, wouldn’t the teacher have to enforce the equality of the marriages as a result of the court ruling(s) and tell him that boys can marry boys?
Which brings me back to telling my son that marriage is between a boy and a girl (or a mommy and daddy). For simplicity sake and for sheer numbers sake (the percent of married couples who are of opposite sexes greatly out numbers those of the same sex), it is what I will tell him.
My worry is for my child to be told otherwise by different figures in authority (agents of the State?) and to be singled out for expressing this view. But what do I do, allow the same-sex activists and their subsequent proponents in the courtroom to stifle my parenting?
Or maybe, I’ll just treat the whole episode as one of child’s play.
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