Gay Parenting

[PanzerJaeger]

Common sense is common sense and common sense says mom and dad is better for a kid than dad and dad.

And my common sense indicates that parental outcomes are a function of parental inputs such as time, energy, and focus, not crass peripheral categorizations like gender.

That's the thing about common sense. It's not so common after all.

Racism isn't intuitive. It is learned.

Every belief is learned. Some learned beliefs stand up to logical scrutiny more than others.

Since science is inferior to anecdote in your world, I'll present my friend Anna as a counterpoint. She was abandoned by her biological parents in China because it is intuitive in many parts of that country that girls are virtually worthless. She was adopted by her real family, her two fathers, as an infant and never had a mother in her life. She's now been married to her husband for three years and is working on her masters in chemical engineering. She is also one of the most normal, well-adjusted people I know.

She might disagree with you on the intuitive nature of the innate superiority of a father and mother over a same sex couple.

Insecurities about what?

That scientific research may render your worldview outdated.

For cancer you need a doctor. A proper doctor. For kids you need parents. And proper parents for a kid means a mother and a father.

So you are, at least on some level, willing to accept that an expert may know more about a subject than a non-expert, and that in some situations expert knowledge may be superior to intuition?

[Beirut]

And my common sense indicates that parental outcomes are a function of parental inputs such as time, energy, and focus, not crass peripheral categorizations like gender.

"Crass peripheral categorizations like gender"? Um... you ever kissed a girl?

But let us all go tell our mothers that their input into our upbringing was nothing that could not be replaced by your garden variety homosexual man. And let us tell our fathers that any lesbian of the day could supplant him in his role as "dad".

Oh my...

That's the thing about common sense. It's not so common after all.

Well, you take your science study of the week and I'll stick with my common sense about mom and dad.

Every belief is learned. Some learned beliefs stand up to logical scrutiny more than others.

Like the learned belief that kids should have moms and dads.

Since science is inferior to anecdote in your world, I'll present my friend Anna as a counterpoint.

Hi Anna.

She was abandoned by her biological parents in China because it is intuitive in many parts of that country that girls are virtually worthless. She was adopted by her real family, her two fathers, as an infant and never had a mother in her life. She's now been married to her husband for three years and is working on her masters in chemical engineering. She is also one of the most normal, well-adjusted people I know.

Good for her. I'm happy she's happy.

She might disagree with you on the intuitive nature of the innate superiority of a father and mother over a same sex couple.

Indeed she might.

That scientific research may render your worldview outdated.

Um... no.

So you are, at least on some level, willing to accept that an expert may know more about a subject than a non-expert, and that in some situations expert knowledge may be superior to intuition?

Obviously, but not in this case.

Why not have all the babies be test tube babies born in vats, IV fed, and "educated" by electrodes for the first three-years of their life? I'll bet you dollars to donuts there's a study out there that says those kids would be just fine. Hell, they might even be better that the "normal" kids. While they are in their vat-cribs, they could be given special drugs to influence their IQ and mood and physique. We could have 100% happy, smart, healthy kids, who all live to be 110. Wouldn't that be great!

No. It wouldn't. It's - not - normal.

[ajaxfetish]

But let us all go tell our mothers that their input into our upbringing was nothing that could not be replaced by your garden variety homosexual man. And let us tell our fathers that any lesbian of the day could supplant him in his role as "dad".

Surely you can make your point without a disingenuous appeal to emotion. No, a garden variety homosexual man could never replace the input I've had from my mother. Neither could a garden variety heterosexual woman. And a different heterosexual man could no more replace my father than a lesbian woman could. My parents have both had a profoundly individual influence upon me, that is the result of the sum total of who they are, not just their genders and sexual orientations.

Go tell a child raised by a gay couple that the input into their lives that one of their fathers had was nothing that could not be replaced by your garden variety heterosexual woman. I don't buy it.

Ajax

[a completely inoffensive name]

I am going to go along with Beirut here and give him the benefit of the doubt. Right now I am planning on knocking up my girlfriend so I can acquire all the common sense about kids that he obviously gained by shooting his man load into his woman.

[Sasaki Kojiro]

This thread deserves a fitting memegenerator.com pic but I can't find one :(

[a completely inoffensive name]

[Beirut]

I am going to go along with Beirut here and give him the benefit of the doubt. Right now I am planning on knocking up my girlfriend so I can acquire all the common sense about kids that he obviously gained by shooting his man load into his woman.

That's a charming way to reference another man's wife.

[a completely inoffensive name]

That's a charming way to reference another man's wife.

EDIT: Nah, forget it. I'm not joining this thread just to sling insults.

[Sasaki Kojiro]

[Beirut]

Surely you can make your point without a disingenuous appeal to emotion.

Not always, no.