D.C. Passes Marriage Equality; D.C. Parent Claims Child’s Innocence Destroyed by Gay Guinea Pigs

It’s a joyous day in our nation’s capitol as the D.C. City Council voted for the second and final time in favor of legal marriage for same-sex couples in the District of Columbia. Mayor Adrian M. Fenty has promised to sign it soon, after which it will go to Capitol Hill for Congressional review before becoming law.

Yesterday, however, came news that Margaret C. Hemenway, the mother of a first-grader at Horace Mann Elementary, a public school in D.C., had filed a complaint with the D.C. school chancellor because her son’s teacher had—horrors—mentioned to the class that she was going to get married—to a woman. The teacher had also read Sarah Brannen’s Uncle Bobby’s Wedding, about two male guinea pigs who marry, to the class.

Hemenway, a member of “Parents and Friends of Ex-Gays & Gays (PFOX),” said she asked the chancellor, “What department in the DC Government we can appeal to for restoration of our child’s sense of innocence?” Her post about this on the PFOX site (http://pfox-exgays.blogspot.com/2009/12/real-purpose-of-gay-marriage.html) is full of the vilest assumptions that talking about a same-sex couple getting married means talking about sex. (You can read coverage of it at the Washington City Paper if you’d rather not visit the PFOX site.)

[Update: Reader A points out in a comment below that Hemenway has used this same schtick before. I’d even covered it, but was clearly thrown off because she had tried to use it against Obama and William Ayers last time around. I guess the whole “gay people are indoctrinating our children” gag still has some miles left in it.]

News flash: My son is in first grade, too. He’s had same-sex parents since he was born. His parents got (legally) married when he was three, and he attended the ceremony. He still doesn’t know a thing about sex.

There are going to be a lot more same-sex couples getting married in DC pretty soon. Some of their children will be talking about this in their classes. Mostly, I imagine, they’ll be discussing the flavor of the wedding cakes and the outfits they get to wear. Hemenway better get used to it.

The timing of the news about Hemenway’s complaint does not seem accidental, however, and we should not write this incident off as a one-time [or even two-time] complaint by an ultra-conservative parent. When a San Francisco first-grade class surprised their teacher by showing up at her wedding in the fall of 2008, the far-right ran with it to “prove” how legal marriage for same-sex couples would lead to it being “taught” in schools. If you think no one would fall for that, consider: Sixty-four percent of voters with children under 18 voted for Prop 8, according to CNN exit polls. Among married voters with children, the yes votes rose to 68 percent. Only 44 percent of voters without children (and 45 percent of those married without children) voted for Prop 8.

If I had to guess, I’d say that members of Congress will be inundated with tales like that of Hemenway in an attempt to get them to overturn the Council vote. Write to yours now and explain that marriage equality won’t change the fact that children of lesbian and gay parents are in class, talking about their families. There’s been no proven harm to the children of straight parents because of this. Denying marriage equality, however, has been shown to be harmful to the children of lesbian and gay parents. Demand that your members of Congress vote in the best interests of the children—all the children—and for equality.

(Thanks to Sarah Brannen for the tip.)

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