Out of the mouths of babes.

[rivka]

There's a new family at our church - two women and their sons, ages 8 and 18 months. They moved to Maryland because it allows second-parent adoptions for GLBT couples, and because the laws in general are dramatically more queer-friendly than they are in Virginia.

This week they went to court to complete their adoptions. The 8-year-old's nonbiological mother told me how it went:

"I was there thinking of it as a joyous occasion, and my son was furious. He was really, really angry. He told me, 'Mom, you're my Mom! We don't have to go to court.' He crawled under the bench and didn't want to have anything to do with it. And I thought, '...you know, he's right.' I let the judge know what he said, and she told him he was a very smart boy."

It's funny how sometimes kids, lacking the background information that adults have, can put their finger right on the heart of an issue. My first impulse, hearing that they'd completed the adoptions, was to give them my happy congratulations. But their little boy is right: there's nothing to celebrate about it taking eight years and a legal action for his government to recognize who his mothers are.

Comments

[hobbitbabe.livejournal.com]

Okay, this just made me cry.

[eeyorerin]

Your post made me think about how both of my parents have separately become greater advocates for GLBT rights after witnessing some of the legal (and other) problems that their queer friends have had with adopting children. Hearing my father go off on a tirade about "how dare they not let both partners adopt that baby at once because it's obvious that they're both her parents" was probably one of the most heartwarming things I'd ever heard from him.

My first impulse would also be to congratulate them, but their little boy is right. I hope that if and when he is ready to be a parent, the world will have changed.

[nancylebov.livejournal.com]

Good for the kid. I hope he remembers that attitude when he's old enough to find it tempting to believe in government.

[klwalton.livejournal.com]

Oh, *wow*. Yeah. No words, you already used them all, but *wow*.