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PDFAll four are now arguing to a federal court that redefining marriage to include same-sex couples will harm children by depriving them of a father or mother.
The court is considering whether to uphold traditional marriage---between one man and one woman---in Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi. This court's ruling is expected in a few months.
The United States Supreme Court has announced it will "consider" gay "marriage" bans in Michigan, Ohio, Kentucky and Tennessee. Oral arguments will begin in April, with a ruling before the end of the current term in June.
These four have filed an amicus brief with the court pleading that the court uphold natural marriage.
The experiences of these four individuals are not unlike what I have seen as a youth pastor and pastor.
The child in all these cases is deprived of either a father or mother, and is forced to adjust to a home environment that is unnatural and very difficult.
The brief filed with the court by these four, now grown, children of homosexual parents is very revealing and heartbreaking.
It reveals that life is not all about "me."
It is also a statement that gives clear affirmation to why the institution of marriage is sacred. Marriage is about much more than "the right to love whom I want." Or the affirmation of a chosen sexual behavior.
The following quotes are from the amicus brief filed with the court.
Dawn Stefanowicz described her experience of living in a same-sex home like this:
"I wasn't surrounded by average heterosexual couples. Dad's partners slept and ate in our home, and they took me along to meeting places in the LGBT community. I was exposed to overt sexual activities like sodomy, nudity, pornography, group sex, sadomasochism and the ilk. There was no guarantee that any of my dad's partners would be around for long and yet I often had to obey them. My rights and innocence were violated."
"As children we were not allowed to express our disagreement, pain and confusion. Most adult children from gay households do not feel safe or free to publicly express their stories and life long challenges, they fear loosing professional licenses, not obtaining employment in their chosen field, being cut off from some family members or losing whatever relationship they may have had with their gay parent. Some gay parents have threatened to leave no inheritance, if children don't accept their parent's partner du jour."
B.N. Klein told the court this about growing up with a lesbian mother:
"I grew up with a parent and her partner in an atmosphere in which gay ideology was used as a tool of repression, retribution and abuse. I have seen that children in gay households often become props to be publicly displayed to prove that gay families are just like heterosexual ones. I was taught that some Jews and most Christians were stupid and hated gays and were violent."
Klein says, "People's accomplishments did not matter, their personal struggles did not matter...The only thing that mattered was what they thought of gays."
Robert Oscar Lopez, who was raised by a lesbian mother, says he probably had the "best possible conditions" for a child raised in a same-sex house.
He says had he been "formally studied" in 1985, he would have "confirmed their rosiest estimations of LGBT life."
However, he says, "behind these facades of a happy 'outcome' lay many problems."
As he grew up he explains he had a great deal of confusion due to the lack of a father figure in his life---as a teen, he turned to prostitution with older men.
He tells the court, "The money I received certainly helped me financially because it allowed me certain spending money beyond what I earned with my teenage jobs in a pizzeria and at my mother's [psychiatric] clinic."
"But," he says, it wasn't the money he craved---it was the need to be loved by an older male figure.
He needed a dad.
He tells how ultimately he was able to reconnect with his biological father and that has helped him turn his life around.
Katy Faust explains to the court, "My advocacy against gay marriage and for the rights of children will never include condemnation of my mother and her partner."
Faust say, "When we institutionalize same-sex marriage, we move from permitting citizens the freedom to live as they choose, to promoting same-sex headed households. In doing so we ignore the true outcropping of marriage."
She says, "Now we are normalizing a family structure where a child will always be deprived daily of one gender influence and the relationship with at least one natural parent."
Faust says, "Our cultural narrative becomes one that, in essence, tells children that they have no right to the natural family structure or their biological parents, but that children simply exist for the satisfaction of adult desires."
The immediate, and likely strongest argument against these testimonies will be that they were hand picked for the occasion.
Much has been said over the past several years about the impact on children who have been raised in homosexual households.
Two years ago Mark Regnerus did an in-depth study on the matter.
Regnerus' study was designed to re-examine the question, "Is Gay Parenting Bad For Kids?"
He drew from a much larger number of people than previous studies and with more clear and directed questions.
An excellent overview article was written by National Review Online. I strongly recommend you read it.
Some of Regnerus' findings were to be expected---some were a bit surprising.
One deficit is particularly troublesome.
Less than 2% of children from intact, biological families reported experiencing sexual abuse of some nature, but the figure for children of same-sex couples is 23%.
Equally troubling is that 14% of children from same-sex couples have spent time in foster care, compared with around 2% of the population at large. Arrest, drug experimentation, and unemployment rates were all higher among children from same-sex families.
Is gay parenting bad for kids? Regnerus says his findings are a "resounding yes!"
Simply stated, his study finds that if you want children to have the very best start in life, give them the opportunity to be born in wedlock, with a male father and female mother who stay together for the duration of their life.
But then, haven't we heard that somewhere before? We have. In the best selling Book of all time.
God help America.
Be Informed. Be Faithful. Be Prayerful. Be Blessed.