By: Jennifer Trigos, JS Senior
According the Human Rights campaign (www.hrc.org), a proponent of proposition 8 has changed his views on gay marriage. On June 22, 2012 Charlie Joughin of the HRC staff, blogged about an op-ed that will be published in the New York Times from the founder of the Institute of American Values, David Blankenhorn. Joughin went on to quote the HRC President who is one of the parties involved against Proposition 8:
“David Blankenhorn’s evolution on marriage equality is emblematic of the paradigm shift we are experiencing as a country on this issue. Loving gay and lesbian couples should not be denied the ability to make the same lifelong commitment as everyone else and Blankenhorn’s agreement with that proposition puts him in the mainstream of American opinion.
“What David Blankenhorn has shown the world is that through careful deliberation and a deepening understanding of LGBT people, one can only draw the conclusion that the answer is full equality. While it can be difficult as a public figure to change course, I applaud him for taking a courageous and principled stand. His experience wrestling with the issue of marriage equality and coming out on the right side of history will be an inspiration to millions of fair-minded Americans who are in the same place.”
David Blanenhorn’s op-ed does illustrate a change in the “shift” on the way the county thinks about same-sex marriage in the he admits that the main focus of argument is that marriage should be between a man and a women. The institution of marriage is considered in Blankenhorn’s words, “to unite the biological, social and legal components of parenthood into one lasting bond” (www.nytimes.com). In this instance to say that this is the only way one can create a lasting bond is preposterous. Many families don’t have the biological components; adoptive parents, step-parents, and foster-parents. There are families that can not conceive and decide to adopt, or are artificially inseminated. These circumstances can apply to heterosexual couples as well as homosexual couples. In some if not many circumstances a child is better off with an adoptive parent. Parenting creates a lasting bond not solely the biological make-up.
Blankehorn’s next statement in his op-ed is that about the sexual union between a man and women that marriage helps to create, and bestow that love that created a child upon that child. This statement leads to an idea that the men and women that created their child out of love had it to begin with. Men and women get together under different circumstances and marriage is a product of a child not the other way around. This is not to devalue the love that a man and a women could have, but this is not always the case; even if the couple is married. As Blankehorn goes on in his op-ed he begins to show his change in opinion. Although, he clearly states that he still believes in the sexual union and sanctity of marriage between a man and a women; he acknowledges that same-sex love deserves equal “dignity”. He argues that his hope of the same-sex marriage debate struck strictly to ideas the relationship between marriage and parenthood. Unfortunately, he goes on to say that the argument of this relationship between marriage and parenthood became more about accepting gay and lesbians as equal citizens. In the end he recognizes that a better way of dealing with this issue is to unify and to protect the ideology of marriage in hopes to reinforce marriage before childbearing.
Tags: Proposition 8
Category: Alumni and Friends, News
