Prop 8 and Families: A Compilation

Oral arguments in the Prop 8 case will begin in just a few minutes. While you’re waiting, here are links to a few older pieces I wrote about how Prop 8 impacts families:

• How Prop 8 Hurts Families, about a report from Marriage Equality USA compiling hundreds of stories, especially from LGBT youth and the children of LGBT parents, describing over 1,200 specific instances of how Prop 8 frightened them, promoted bullying in schools, and caused tensions and resentment among family members and neighbors, among other harms.
• Prop 8: Our Children’s Perspective, on an article that profiles several teens of LGBT parents about Prop 8.
• Prop 8: This Is How Bad It Is, with more on the impact of Prop 8 on young children.
• LGBT Parents: the Forgotten Voices of Prop. 8, on how LGBT parents should have been highlighted more in No On 8 messaging.
• Prop 8 Protests and Parenting, on the difficulties of balancing activism and parenthood.
• Why Gay Rights Are Best for Children, which includes Prop 8, but also takes a broader perspective.
• Marriage Equality and the Protection of Children, again, broader than just Prop 8, but relevant.

You might also want to take a look at HRC’s new Web site, EndtheLies.org, which directly addresses right-wing lies and distortions used to defeat LGBT equality measures and allows for grassroots response. The site launches today with a petition against Ken Starr, who has argued that Prop 8 should stand because of the state’s role in protecting the welfare of children. Starr has referred to the struggle for marriage equality as “seizing and hijacking the marriage relationship in order to achieve apartheid-type values.”