Nowhere is this correlation more strongly substantiated than in the African-American community ? where 68 percent of black children are born to unwed mothers and half of black males between ages 18-35 are involved in America's criminal-justice system, according to a study of urban youths in Washington, D.C. and Baltimore.
These statistics could represent a set of variables unique to the African-American community that may not be duplicated in same-sex families. However, such statistics lend plausible ground to the notion that it is in the interest of a child's well being to have both a mother and a father.
At its root, same-sex marriage is predicated on two grossly faulty premises: (1) that children do (ital) not (unital) need both a mother and a father; (2) that two moms or two dads are just as good as a mother and a father. Here is where most people I know register their visceral opposition, even if they can't articulate just why.
We who have raised children know better. The unique gifts that mothers and fathers bring to their children cannot be replaced by substitutes. I suspect that heterosexuals ? and even some homosexuals ? who have been lucky enough to have two loving parents can affirm this truth
And the many fathers who have lost children in the divorce trenches and custody battles, should recognize that creating yet another institution that robs children of their right to two (opposite-sex) parents is unacceptable and undermines the arguments of those battling for fatherhood.
I am well aware that to say what I've just said is to open myself up to charges of bigotry. This is both unfortunate and dishonest.
It's unfortunate because debate about this hugely important subject has been stifled by what often amounts to intimidation; it's dishonest because it is not bigotry to worry about the normalization in law and culture of an institution, which, of necessity, will deprive children of the experience of having one mother and one father. What is irreparably harmed is a genuine exposure to the full meaning of gender as perceived through the lives of one's parents.
The fact that heterosexuals in their search for personal fulfillment have failed to protect marriage and their children is a just indictment that calls for acknowledgement and redress of harm done. It is not a mandate to further the disintegration of the structure of the family by ratifying a ?right? for some individuals that stands in direct conflict with the equal right of children to have both a mother and a father.
Fathers, of all people, should know this best.