Today’s must-read article tries to answer the question, “What gay marriage means for the future of parenthood.”
In “The New Nuclear Family,” Suzy Khimm of The New Republic looks at the changing landscape of families today, particularly in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decision on marriage equality. The ruling “has begun to alleviate some of these anxieties [over recognition of a non-biological or non-adoptive parent] and lower the legal barriers to parenthood.” She adds (and rightly so), however, that the court’s action “hasn’t cleared away all of the legal obstacles to same-sex parenthood.” Some states now allow adoption agencies to discriminate for religious reasons. Others are unclear on the rights (or lack thereof) of sperm donors and/or surrogates. I’d also add that parentage laws simply haven’t caught up in some places.
She also profiles two same-sex couples who are following the traditional sequence of marriage, then child, and asks, “So will same-sex parents simply become the new beacons of old family values?”
Possibly—but at the same time, she posits, “the rise of LGBT families could also affirm a more expansive and progressive notion of what it means to be a parent.” She continues, “Even as people like Justice Kennedy praise the virtues of marriage and a two-parent household, this traditional view of what constitutes a family is already a fiction. . . . Gay parenting simply adds another layer of complexity to what’s already a very diverse and complicated picture.”
Amen to that. It’s a smart article and a good read.
