Esprit d'Escalier: On Gays Being Better Parents

So, I was leaving stake conference this afternoon, when I ran into CE... he's a great guy, and active in many of the same circles (read: gay and Mormon) I am. We got to talking about all sorts of things, but somehow the conversation came around to gay marriage. I don't much care for the gay marriage movement as currently constituted, and I told him as much — thinking that he and I were of the same mind on the subject. I was wrong.

Yeah, I know.

It was a little awkward for a split second... but we just dove into talking about it. He was taken aback by my stance, frankly, and said as much... and though I would like to give a point-by-point analysis of our discussion, I don't have the time. And if I had the time, I don't think it would be fair to CE, as he wouldn't be able to fully participate.

But there was one thing that he said that kinda stuck with me. He commented (and I'm paraphrasing, so I hope I get the sentiment right) that many of the gay couples he knew would be superior in every regard to many of the hetero couples out there that were so horribly broken... and though I said something to him, there, I came to a more cogent thought later... namely: Yes, there are many great gay couples out there... but I imagine that this is more a product of adversity winnowing-out the not-so-great couples, rather than some innate ability of the gay to parent. I submit that with time and a removal of some of the obstacles that gays face in rearing children, that we're bound to see an increase in the number gay parents. And with that increase, I submit, we'll see the percentage of "awful" gay parents compared to the general gay parent population approaching the percentages we see among hetero parents... and that gay parents will prove to be just as likely to be rotten, selfish, and mean-spirited as their hetero counterparts.

Anyway, I just had to put my thoughts to "paper" before they flit away.

I now return you to your regularly-scheduled programming.