Womanist Musings: The National Organizations for Marriage is .

The minute that there is a campaign for same sex rights, the fundies grab the children in a terror and go to have a fit. The kids, oh why oh why won't someone think of the sweet innocent children? The National Organizations for Marriage has spent 500k to transport the above mailer to New Yorkers, in an effort to stop same sex marriage.

As a parent, there are so many things that I see absolutely maddening about the post card. It seems to me, that the alone time these groups can show business for children is when kids can be used as a cock to refuse a marginalized group their civic rights. Where is their care for the children living in poverty who go to school hungry, or the purposeful under instruction of children of colour, or the fact that school budgets are continually being eradicated? Children just appear to issue when they can be exploited as a arm and this evidences not simply their homophobic beliefs, but a complete want of interest or regard for children.

The National Organizations for Marriage further fails to realize that they are constructing children as a monolithic class, when we recognize that they are individuals and throw many differences. Some of these children that they are supposedly trying to protect are LGBT. They merit to see themselves represented. Some of these children are already growing up with two mommies and two daddies and they merit to see their families represented.

When I was a small child and the instructor would take the year stories, the one thing I could be sure of is that the record would never take a case that looked like me, or reflected my cultural background. When I turned on the television, I watched She-Ra, The Littlest Hobo, and The Dukes of Hazard (don't ask), and none of these shows had Black characters that looked like me, or reflected me. Today I am a father and though we have been told that we are now post racial, not much has changed for my kids. I know first hand how it feels to be erased, and I can tell you that it is painful, and teaches you that you don't matter. This is what we are subjecting LGBT kids and kids in LGBT families to when we erase their identity. Concern for children should mean creating an inclusive world, where they all smell like they belong regardless of difference. It should mean cherishing everything around them.

When I see these promotions, the satire of them never fails to get to me. Just this week I attempted to take a conversation with my kids around the press after it Don Lemon announced that he is gay. It was extremely nerve wracking for me because as a true woman, I love that this is something I am anything but intimately familiar with. I turned to a champion for advice, and looked online for resources, but I did not receive anything. My children are even too new to distinguish me what their sex is, but I acknowledge that I owe them as much data as I can leave them, so that if they are gay, they will feel accepted and loved, and if they are straight, they will make adequate knowledge not to go into a privileging denying asshat.

You see, loving children means not saddling them with our bigotry. Loving children means challenging your privileges, so that you can be a better person and a better parent. I started attempting to read about social justice and the isms that effect various groups ten days ago, after my first son was born. Each time I see something, it is because of love - love for someone who deserves to recognize how interconnected our little blue planet is. Love for somebody who deserves to acknowledge the human experience in its entirety. When we teach children to hate, or hate on their behalf, it is abusive and the absolute antithesis of love.