BIAS AGAINST SSM HURTS SPOUSES AND CHILDREN: Deb Price

Wearily flying back from Amsterdam via Canada this June, Connecticut dads Jeffrey Busch and Stephen Davis got a quick lesson on why marriage matters.

A couple for 14 years, they were traveling with their 22-month-old son, Elijah, conceived with the help of a surrogate mother. Until Davis' legal parenthood becomes final through what's called second-parent adoption, Busch is listed as Elijah's sole parent on the toddler’s passport.

"Who are you?," a Canadian immigration official asked Davis brusquely.
After the couple explained that Davis is Elijah's second dad, the official responded: "How do I know this isn't a kidnapping?" ...

Janet Peck and Carol Conklin, a couple of 28 years in the lawsuit, were subjected to indignities when Peck had surgery. Despite a slew of legal papers, Conklin was barred from intensive care because she was not considered "immediate family." ...

Meanwhile, a decision by Judge William Downing, who handed down the first of Washington state's breakthrough rulings, ought to be required reading for fair-minded Americans. His Aug. 4 decision warns that moves to create second-rate alternatives to marriage are what could weaken the institution.

Calling the gay couples asking to marry "model citizens," the judge declared, "There is not one among them that any of us should not be proud to call a friend or neighbor or to sit with at small desks on back-to-school night. There is no worthwhile institution that they would dishonor, much less destroy."

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posted by Eve at 5:57 PM | link

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