A Right to a Child?

• Post by: William C. Duncan
• June 9, 2015

Jephthath's Daughters Innocent Casualties in the War for Family "Equality" Robert Oscar Lopez and Rivka Edelman, EditorsCreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform, 2015; 484 pages, $16.59 At the end of June, a majority of justices on the U.S. Supreme Court announced that the Fourteenth Amendment requires every state to redefine marriage to include same-sex couples. Following a line of cases from the 1960s codifying the principles of the sexual revolution, the Court announced that the Constitution “includes certain specific rights that allow persons, within a lawful realm, to define and express their identity.” The Court’s previous cases, the majority continued, established that “the right to personal choice regarding marriage is inherent in the concept of individual autonomy.” Arguments presented in defense of the challenged marriage laws had highlighted concerns about the impact of redefining marriage on children. The Court majority argued the converse would be true: “Without the recognition, stability, and predictability marriage offers, their children suffer the stigma of knowing their families are somehow lesser. They also suffer the significant material costs of being raised by unmarried parents, relegated through no fault of their own to a more difficult and uncertain family life. The marriage laws at issue here thus harm and humiliate the children of same-sex couples.” This passage requires some looking into. Notice the sleight of hand in phrases like “their children” or “their families” or “unmarried parents” or “children of same-sex couples.” The reality, of course, is that children in households headed by same-sex couples are not living with “their parents.” At least one of their parents has been excluded from the household. Every child has a mother and father. In a household headed by two men, a child necessarily lacks his or her own mother. If propounding this elemental misstatement gives the majority any