Appalling. Ignorant and appalling.
Keith Bardwell, a Louisiana justice of the peace, has refused to issue a marriage license to an interracial couple, citing concerns about the effect on any children. The AP, via NPR, reports:
Bardwell said he has discussed the topic with blacks and whites, along with witnessing some interracial marriages. He came to the conclusion that most of black society does not readily accept offspring of such relationships, and neither does white society, he said.
“There is a problem with both groups accepting a child from such a marriage,” Bardwell said. “I think those children suffer and I won’t help put them through it.”
Clearly he is forgetting that the child of such a marriage is now President of the United States.
At the same time, I wonder if the LGBT community, of all ethnicities, will be able to use what will certainly be furor over this incident to make the additional point that people should be similarly appalled when others cite concerns about children as a reason to block marriage for same-sex couples.
It is the love of the parents, not their color or their gender, that makes a family. Maybe someday we as a country will get that right.
The first thing I thought when I read this article was that if you substitute “same sex” for “interracial,” is has a very familiar ring to it. Sigh.