A reader writes:
My sister is not gay, but she did have a child without the benefit of a father (through artificial insemination by an anonymous sperm donor, as I assume Mary probably did). I remember raising some concerns with my brother, who has 4 children while I have none. His response was basically this. There are so many children conceived unintentionally and born to parents who really don’t want them, here at least is one conceived intentionally to someone who wants nothing more in this world than to do everything possible to make that child happy. I thought he had a good point and have never questioned my sister’s decision since.
My point is not to compare having and raising a child in some optimum environment, but to the real world fact that few children have anything close to that. After all, there is more to an optimum child-raising environment than just having two parents of the opposite sex. What about having the resources to raise a child properly? What about having two people to love a child a care for it in a world with so many single parents? Isn‚Äôt two better than one? I think these are things that those who advocate a traditional family structure always overlook. It’s ultimately a question of balance and comparing a situation to what is often the case and not some optimum that seldom exists.
All of this is obvious to anyone but a fanatic. But fanaticism is what we’re dealing with. When I hear people on cable news reiterate that a child is best brought up with a mother and a father and cite studies showing the toll that fatherlessness takes on mainly black urban kids, all I can say is: yes. Yes. YES. YES. But so what? What’s the relevance of that to Mary Cheney? Is she to be forbidden to have a child? Is Virginia about to pass a law not only shredding gay couples of any legal protections but threatening to take their children away from them as well? Is it not enough that one mother will have no legal rights over her child?
Here are the only relevant questions. Should it be illegal for lesbian or single women to get artificially inseminated? If artificial insemination is legal, is it better for the child to have a stable, two-person home or not? That’s it. What’s the Christianist answer? I heard it on O’Reilly Wednesday night when he had one of the Foxbot women on to tell him what he already thinks. He ended his "fair and balanced" segment by asking her if a husband should be "mandatory" for lesbian or single moms. The answer was yes. What does he mean by "mandatory"? I assume making it illegal for lesbians to have their own children. If that’s what they want, they should say so.
Reality-based conservative Robert A. George has more thoughts here.
The Dish 