Not one, but two videos have surfaced in the past few days showing children of same-sex parents standing up for their families in Utah. Yesterday, 26-year-old Griffin Fearonce spoke with Utah’s KUTV about his lesbian moms. This followed Friday’s inspiring speech by 12-year-old Riley Hackford-Peer at a marriage equality rally. Marriage equality opponents are trotting out the old and unsubstantiated argument that children do best when raised by a mother and a father. First-person stories from those with same-sex parents are a good antidote.
Fearonce is a Sandy City police officer and an officer in the army reserves. He said that he doesn’t believe his opportunities were limited because he had two moms — and he even feels it may have given him some advantages: “I have an interracial, lesbian family, so I think it made me stronger and a lot more open to other people.”
Utahans are evenly divided in their opinions on allowing same-sex couples to marry, according to a recent poll for the Salt Lake Tribune. I hope that as more people hear videos like those above, the percentages will shift even more towards equality.
I expect we’ll be hearing soon from children of same-sex parents in Oklahoma, too. A federal judge yesterday ruled that that state’s ban on marriage for same-sex couples was unconstitutional. Unlike in Utah, however, he did not allow marriages to begin before issuing a stay on the ruling, citing the pending decision in the Utah case from the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, which would also decide an expected appeal in the Oklahoma case.
Let’s hope the court settles matters in the Beehive and Sooner states sooner rather than later, for the sake of all the same-sex couples who want to wed there.