Should California Pass Prop 8?

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Don’t buy the scare tactics being pushed by those who want you to support Prop 8.  Prop 8 has nothing to do with teaching, or schools or kids.

The fact is, having straight parents – a mom and a dad – is no guarantee that a child will have a safe, secure home or grow up to be a productive, well-adjusted individual. I’ve been a pediatrician for 16 years, and can tell you first hand that same- and opposite-gender parents react in exactly the same way to stings, scrapes, shots and all the other joys and heartaches of childhood – as do their kids. Being a great (or not so great) parent has nothing to do with someone’s sexual orientation. Conscientious and nurturing adults, whether they are men or women, heterosexual or lesbian or gay, can be – and are – excellent parents.

I’ve found that it’s not what families look like – but the love they share – that makes the most difference.

My personal experience is also backed up by hard evidence. Almost three decades of peer reviewed scientific research has uncovered no difference between the children of same-gender parents and the children of opposite-gender parents in terms of their health and development. Indeed, every major organization devoted to child health and welfare in this country agrees that the children of same-gender couples are just as likely to be healthy and well-adjusted as the children of opposite-gender couples. The American Psychological Association found that “There is no scientific evidence that parenting effectiveness is related to parental sexual orientation: Lesbian and gay parents are just as likely as heterosexual parents to provide supportive and healthy environments for their children.”  Period.  The APA also said that those children will benefit if their parents are able to marry.

So why all the fuss?  And why are children continually brought up by those who would eliminate the right to marry from lesbian and gay couples – some of whom have been together for decades.

Because scare tactics sometimes work in political campaigns… and the proponents are trying to scare voters.

Proposition 8, which will eliminate the right of gay and lesbian couples to marry, will not “protect” California’s children because it doesn’t threaten children. What Proposition 8 will do, is hurt the tens of thousands of children being raised by their same-gender parents in California.

Proposition 8 hurts children by eliminating the right of their parents to marry. It forever changes the California Constitution, the highest law of our state, to treat some people differently than others, under the law.
 
Like pediatricians, most Californians recognize that families come in all shapes and sizes. Reality is that children are raised by married parents, unmarried parents, grandparents, single parents, widowed moms and dads, extended family members, foster parents, and the list goes on.  The family is the principal caregiver and the center of strength and support for children.  The one essential ingredient that gives children their best chance for a healthy future: the security of a stable family setting.  And the really essential part of every family is the love they provide.   To suggest otherwise is a slap in the face of every family and every child that doesn’t “look” exactly like the “traditional family” the proponents talk about.

Gay and lesbian people have been raising children for many years and will continue to do so in the future. The issue before us today is whether these children will be raised by parents who have the rights, benefits and protections of marriage. Marriage is a legal status that promotes healthy families by conferring a powerful set of rights, benefits and protections that cannot be obtained by other means. Proposition 8 will eliminate for so many gay and lesbian couples – and their families – the same rights all other loving couples in California enjoy.

Let’s not vote to hurt children by eliminating the right of their parents to marry.  Vote no on 8