History was made once again last week as President Barack Obama accepted the democratic nomination for presidency. Now, not only is the first black president of the United States running for a second term, but we also have the first sitting president ever to publicly acknowledge his support for same-sex marriage.
The president told Robin Roberts of ABC News earlier this year that it was important for him to affirm his support for same-sex marriage. During his speech at the Democratic National Convention, he also briefly reaffirmed his earlier statements on marriage equality.
The most significant part of him speaking of his views on gay rights, however, is that he stood onstage at the convention and spoke of his support for gay Americans with his young children sitting in the front row listening.
In a country where the gay equality opposition constantly uses children and families as a reason to not give gay people their rights, it was a big deal that the sky didn’t fall when the Obama girls heard their father speak of his support for gay people.
The president being open with his children on the fact that gay people exist, and nothing negative coming out of it, is clear evidence that gay marriage, or homosexuality all together, does nothing to harm children or families.
From what I can tell, their father’s support of gay Americans didn’t cause the Obama girls to throw away their feminine wardrobe and dream of one day becoming high school gym teachers.
In reality, not allowing gay marriage doesn’t protect children and families; it harms them.
Gay people raise families. There are children who have gay parents. There are even gay children attending school with a child you may know.
To assume oppressing homosexuals will somehow protect children and families, that’s an equation that just doesn’t add up when homosexuals are part of those exact groups they’re claiming to protect.
If you want to stick with the whole “protect children and families” thing, at least adjust the slogan so it’s accurate. Say you want to “protect the majority of children from a minority group of children that causes them absolutely no harm.”
In fact, believing that it is necessary to protect children from the thought that homosexuality even exists is just ignorant.
With “that’s so gay,” “fag,” and “homo” being common terminology on the playground these days and gay bullying causing countless children to commit suicide every year, children already know about homosexuality. You aren’t sheltering them from anything.
It is beneficial to inform your child about who might be your neighbor, child’s classmate or teacher, or even a family member, because it prepares them to live in the real world where gay people exist.
At the very least, you could teach them to be respectful of their gay classmates so they don’t go kill themselves because of bullying.
Obviously you wouldn’t explain homosexuality to a child the way you would to another adult. There is an age appropriate way of discussing everything, and that’s for the parent to decide how to do.
The only thing not discussing homosexuality with your children does, however, is give someone else the opportunity to educate your children about the real world first. They will hear it somewhere else.
As the president proved in his speech, his children heard what he had to say about gays and the sky remained above their heads. Their world survived another day.
If teaching your child to be tolerant of people who are different from them can cause our world to survive another day, then it’s worth a try.
Jack Chavdarian is a senior journalism major and the assistant social media editor for the Daily 49er.
