Blog: Humanist Voices

There has been much discussion lately about gay couples adopting children and becoming parents, with recent studies concluding that children of gay parents are no more likely to have mental health issues, and are no more likely to be gay than children of straight parents (disproving right-wingers' assertion that gay parents force their children to become gay). Humanists of Minnesota has already adopted an official position on the marriage amendment, and this is an area where I hope HofMN will continue to advocate for science-based legislation and social positions in support of homosexual couples and parents. After all, what matters most to children's healthy development is having a loving, attentive family.

Which brings me to my topic today. I read an article this morning about how Tyler Clementi's mother reacted to his coming out, and how she wants to help other families learn to accept their children's sexual orientations. It made me wonder what role Humanists could play in this discussion.

It seems to me that society's role in general is to help forge an environment where parents of any religious, ethnic, or social background don't feel isolated--where they can find models of parents accepting their gay children within families similar to their own. But if some social environments refuse to provide such a model (and let's face it, that's likely), then I think we as Humanists can provide essential resources for those families.

Groups like HofMN's parenting group are certainly one answer to this need. But I also think that there is so much hate spewed on the internet towards GLBTQ people--and toward all people, let's be honest. One of our goals for this website is to make Humanism and all its values available to people, especially to those seeking an ethical foundation without religious faith, and to those of various religious faiths who seek to understand our ethics and tenets. To me, this necessarily includes providing models of loving families of all kinds. So here's my contribution today: John Kinnear's letter to his hypothetically gay son.