Posted on 02/18/2005 7:11:48 AM PST by srm913
Why can't my moms marry? His parents have been together for 27 years, yet many still question their right to tie the knot, says Matthew Eaton-Kent
It was the day before Father's Day and my Grade 1 class was just putting the finishing touches on the wooden desk organizers we had made. My class had spent weeks sanding down the blocks of wood, adding magnets for paper clips, holders for pens and a spot for an eraser. Today was the day we were going to engrave the word "Dad" into the top of the organizers.
I had worked really hard on my present but I had a problem. I was not going to give my organizer to my dad because I didn't have one. I was going to give my present to one of my two moms.
I wasn't sure what she would think if I brought it home and it had the word dad on it. So I sat there quietly as all the other children took turns hammering the metal stamps, which read "dad," into the wood. I was getting nervous as my turn with the engraving tool grew closer. Finally, I got up and approached the teacher's desk.
She asked me what was wrong. I reluctantly told her that I didn't have a dad and that I was making this gift for my mother. She told me I had nothing to worry about and handed me the stamps with the "m" and "o" for mom.
That's how it has always been in my family. One of my mother's celebrates Mother's Day while the other celebrates Father's Day. Sure, it was a bit awkward at school but it didn't make my family any less of a family. In fact we kids thought it was a great way to recognize both of our moms.
However, there is something that makes my family different from a lot of families. The difference is that my parents have never been married.
The reason my parents have never been married is not because they don't want to but because, by law, they couldn't.
Their relationship was not recognized because marriage was defined as between a man and a woman. It has been very hurtful to my parents, the gay community and believers in human rights that there has been so much opposition to same-sex marriage. It's been hurtful to my sister and me, too. Very hurtful!
Personally I am perplexed by the extreme opposition to changing the definition of marriage so it can include unions between two people, any two people. As someone born into a generation of political correctness and void of any blatant racism, sexism or xenophobia, it is hard to deal with the hateful nature of the opponents of same-sex marriage.
I am not sure why they don't view the love of my parents as equal to the love between two people of the opposite sex. If they question the commitment, they should note the 27 years my parents have spent together and the way they have cherished my sister and me.
I find a lot of the hate and opposition comes from many of the institutions that promote peace, love and understanding. Some churches have fought the right of same-sex couples to marry.
I wish they would look back in history to a time when religious freedom was jeopardized. People who were historically persecuted are all too willing to be prejudiced, all in the name of God.
I am a teenager growing up in an era of equality, an era where blacks are equal to whites, where a man is equal to a woman. This era should include same-sex marriage and my parents.
All of us are made in the image of God, are we not?
Matthew Eaton-Kent, 17, is a Grade 11 honours student and avid athlete. He lives with his two moms, 14-year-old sister, two dogs and one cat in Halton Hills, just outside Toronto.
Whey can't your mom marry a goat if she loves it and makes a commitment?
" I was not going to give my organizer to my dad because I didn't have one."
A lot of kids don't. Divorce, Viet Nam, Iraq, 911....
It goes without saying that anything spewed from the extreme-left Toronto Star has a barf alert. They're the northern version of the NYT.
I think the story would have been better if they made her an Indian and disabled too.
It doesn't pass the smell test.
No, Matthew, what is different is that there are two few testicles in the house.
Mr. Eaton-Kent:
This essay gets an F for composition, and an F+ for ignorance of rudimentary biology.
Next time, write something of interest to people who live somewhere other than Church & Wellesley.
They are not your "parents".
Minimal moral sanity, of course, prevents them from calling anything they might do with toaster ovens, geese, horses, children, corpses, or other women "marriage." But that's pretty much of a "duh."
But they can marry.
When I asked him if he knew his mother was sleeping with a goat, he said " Naaaaaaahhhh, Naaaaaahhhh."
It's been hurtful to my sister and me, too. Very hurtful!
How exactly does the failure of the state to stamp Approved! on the union of the two women who raised him cause him pain? Its not just hurtful, its very hurtful! but Id like to know how, exactly, this non-recognition inflicts this pain on him and his sister.
What is the mechanism of this pain, and how will a mere change in nomenclature relieve it?
Maybe poor Matthew didn't think this through - but even if his moms were to marry, he still doesn't get to chisel dad into his next father's day gift. Very, very hurtful.
I believe I have found the solution. Have gay men marry gay women - there, your married. You simply choose to have an open marriage and sleep with your same sex partner.
Since she is a lesbo, she will not care you are sleeping with a man.
You gay folks need to get together and solve this.
From a rhetorical standpoint, I'd give this emotional appeal, oh, a 5.5 out of 10: nice beat, easy to dance to.
But the answer? `Cause they both be ladies, Matt, eh?
Come to think of it, his last name sounds like a really tasteless pun.
(Exaggerated Asian accent)
Because one-a of dem is missing dee PEEEE-nis.
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