Unfortunately, yes

They are 8. They were 7 during Prop 8, and had excitedly celebrated our wedding with us the preceding June, as our flower girls. As the neighborhood become innundated with "Yes on 8" signs, and all of the crap in the news and on TV about the need to "protect children " from the filthy dirty gays who supposedly want to "recruit them" in the schools , etc., they became more and more aware of the conflict and the toll it was taking on us.

We took them to a few of the "No on 8" rallies near our home, but could never stay there very long with them, because people were driving by continuously in cars , many of them with "Christian" bumper stickers -- Jesus fish, "Not of This World," and so forth, and leaning out their windows to flip us their middle fingers and scream things like "Go to hell you f***ing faggots!" There were even a few who drove by a couple of times to have their LITTLE CHILDREN lean out the window and flip us off. We protected our kids from seeing too much of the crap, and they mostly just got the great experience of meeting other families like ours and being doted on by the other people at the rallies, but it was very upsetting for us that people who call themselves " Christians " would drive by behaving that way towards families with little children.

My kids learned the word "gay" from the "Yes on 8" campaign. Up until that point, they had never heard the word, to know what it meant. They knew they came from a family with two moms, whereas most of their friends have a mom and dad, but there had never been any particular reason to even use the term "gay" or "lesbian" or "homosexual" or any of the other stuff the "Yes on 8" campaign taught them with their commercials and signs and chants.

We're certainly not ashamed of being gay, but as far as we're concerned we're far more identified with the roles of parent, mom, family, homeowner, businessowner, neighbor, friend, aunt, cousin, daughter, etc., than with "gay." We had become pretty complacent in the years prior to Prop 8, feeling so at home in our suburban neighborhood, with our two cars and a dog and two kids that we simply figured there was no need to be a "radical" anymore. How wrong we were. What we discovered was that we were so much like our neighbors, blended so well with our community, that our community forgot we existed. They were busy fighting the "gay menace," and forgot that we were just their neighbors down the street whose kids go to school with their kids.

On voting day, I organized the "No on 8" polling area workers for my locality. I spent the day from 6:00AM until 8:30PM, on my feet without a break even to eat, greeting voters coming to the polling place (outside the 100ft limit and with the consent and cooperation of the polling place manager), offering them literature, talking to people about Prop 8 and what it meant for my family. My wife brought our kids over for a while, but they could only stay for about 1/2 an hour, because some of the people coming to the polls were so vicious and hateful, coming up and yelling in my face that I had no right to be there (I did); that I was a f***ing faggot and was going to hell; that I belonged in Sodom and Gomorrah; and that I should have my children taken away from me.

I didn't feel safe having them there and didn't want them to hear any of that crap, so I sent them home.

Prop 8 was emotionally devastating to me and my wife. We did our best to keep it from hurting our children too much, but they saw the signs. They saw me visibly react to new signs that went up on our own block. They saw that it hurt me, and that sometimes I just couldn't help it and had to cry.

After the vote , I could barely function for a few days. I had invested so much time and energy into the campaign, and the loss was tremendously difficult. We still didn't even know if our marriage would still be valid (it is -- of course, only at the state level, since gay marriages aren't recognized at the federal level).

The signs eventually came down, but the locations where they were posted are still emblazoned in my memory and I can never look at those homes quite the same way again. I went door to door to many of them prior to the vote to introduce myself and talk to them about their views on Prop 8 and explain why it was hurting my family. Most were simply self-righteous and spouted back the same lies to me that they had learned from their campaign people. What do I know? I'm just gay. I certainly wouldn't know as much as they do about the "gay agenda," right?

Anyway, that's way more than you asked, but, yeah, my girls understand ignorance more and more all the time, unfortunately.