Patrick Wallace posted this over at HuffPost, and it needs to be shared far and wide. A little backstory: this is a kid who was taken from his frankly unfit, drug-abusing mother at age eight, thrown around the foster system, and then adopted several years later by a gay couple. As with many kids adopted that age, Zac had a lot of problems. Very often, it’s gay couples who are willing to take the kids that nobody else wants. Here is the letter that Zac, now 15, read to his family this past Christmas:
To my Family,
This is the first Christmas letter that I have ever written. I feel like since I am getting older, I should start writing a letter to the family or just talk about how I thought the family’s year has gone until Christmas.
Ever since I ended up in this family people have told me that I was lucky. I have always known that I am lucky, especially when I have two dads that love me so much as Dad and Dadio. My family is very special to me. Even when we fight and even when we argue, I know they will always love me. Yes I am a lucky boy to have ended up here after spending so many years in foster care and not knowing if I would ever have a family.
I didn’t grow with a dad. My birthmom had many boyfriends and she did a lot of drugs and partying. My sisters and me were taken from her on my eighth birthday. It was not fun to have police in my room on that day. It made me sad and this sadness I carried for many years and it got me in a lot of trouble. Then I landed in a great foster home after having lived in 12 different homes in three years. It was when I lived there that both my foster mom and social worker told me there was a family that wanted me. There was a catch: it was two dads!
Honestly, it didn’t matter to me. I told them, “well, I never had a dad, now I get to have two!”
The start was tough and rough, and I put them through hell and back. I did awful and nasty things to them both. I stole their credit card and spent thousands of dollars online. When we went on my first vacation out of the country, I stole stuff from a souvenir stand – they found out and made me go back to the shop to return the souvenirs and made me pay the lady who owned the shop for the stolen property which then I had to give to a local kid. I didn’t get it and thought they were being mean.
When I stole their American Express and maxed it buying stuff online I was only 12 years old. They were very upset, but Dad made sure I got the message of how serious this was. He took me to our local police station and reported me to the police captain for having stolen again. I was taken to an interrogation room and talked to by three police officers. All the time there I only wanted my Dad to come in and bring me home. I wanted to turn time back to before my stealing so I would not be there and I would not have hurt my parents so much. I learned my lesson and NEVER stole again!
But Dad and Dadio brought not just me into this family. They also added my brother Derrick. What I can say about Derrick is that he is really cool, he is funny, he is an awesome gay guy, he is a one of a kind guy, he is my bro. Next they added Nick. Nick can get on my nerves sometimes, but in the end he is pretty cool. He is a fast leaner when it comes to math and multiplying numbers. And with that said, I will go to the roots of the family.
Dad and Dadio. They are my parents and they are always here when I need them.
When it is dark they are the light,
When I feel frightened and chill’s,
They are the warmth I feel.
When I am hungry they cook my meals.
I did not put a lot of time into the poem, but in the poem you see my parents. The people that show me the light. The people that warm my heart when it gets dark. The people that cook my meals. If I could only ask for anything for Christmas I would only ask for my family.
By Zac
Those are the family values the Religious Right is fighting against. Just sayin’.
Yet another study confirming that the Religious Right’s nonsense about gays being unfit parents is just that — nonsense:
A new study has found that teens raised by lesbian parents report the same quality of life as teens raised by heterosexual parents.
[...]
Researchers followed 78 17 year olds with lesbian mothers who were matched on gender, age, parental education and ethnic background with adolescents in heterosexual-parent families that were drawn from a representative statewide sample.
The adolescents in both groups gave a numerical score (on a scale of zero to 10) to each of a series of statements such as, “I feel I’m getting along with my parents/guardians,” “I look forward to the future’’ and “I feel good about myself.” The adolescents with lesbian mothers responded generally in the same way as the teenagers with heterosexual parents.
“Our new data demonstrate that 17-year-olds raised from birth by lesbian mothers are as happy as their peers,” the study’s co-author, Loes van Gelderen, wrote.
Unsurprising, but good to have yet more confirmation.
If you missed this story, last week, Janice Daniels, mayor of Troy, Michigan, embarrassed herself quite a bit when one of her Facebook posts started going viral. In it, she complained that she would have to throw away her “I Love NY carrying bag” now that “queers” are allowed to get married there.
This prompted a lesbian couple named Amy and Tina, who have children, to show up at the city council meeting and explain a few things to Ms. Daniels. The resulting video is amazing:
Of course — until Christian Rightists elevate themselves above God and say otherwise.
In her book, “Somone’s Son,” Brenda Rhodes recalls how she corrected her son (who was dying from HIV/AIDS) when he asserted belief in a God of unconditional love.
Rhodes tells the American Family Association’s propaganda arm, OneNewsNow:
“He would get of the opinion that God loves us unconditionally no matter what we do,” Rhodes explains. “I told him that that is true but when we live outside of his bounds and we do things that we know we should not then it breaks the relationship with God and we have consequences that we have to live with, and even die with sometimes.”
Rhodes should have titled her book, “God Loves Me, Not Thee” — the tale of “bounds” set by a control-freak mother who vainly claims to be God’s spokeswoman.
Rhodes’ book advises other parents how to be stubbornly vain and prejudiced toward gay sons, how to equate sexual orientation with drug addiction, and how to mangle the Bible for perceived personal advantage and control.
This is typical behavior from the National Organization for Marriage, but should be pointed out nonetheless. As Joe points out, whoever’s manning NOM’s blog these days posted this piece a little earlier today:
It’s telling that an organization which claims to support children and families is personally attacking a new family with two loving, supportive parents with the means to give that child every opportunity in life. Meanwhile, there are still millions of kids around the world who lack basic things like food and shelter. But NOM’s concerned about scoring political points against Jared Polis.
Deb Word works tirelessly as an advocate for homeless/discarded gay youth in Memphis, Tennessee. In this video, she’s interviewed at a conference at Fordham University on the Catholic Church and sexual diversity, and talks about her own gay son and how she got into the work she’s doing.
Full disclosure ‘n’ stuff: Deb is a friend of mine, and I’m proud to say so.
This entire blog post, written by a mom whose six year old son has a serious crush on Blaine from Glee, is amazing.
My oldest son is six years old and in love for the first time. He is in love with Blaine from Glee.
For those who don’t know Blaine is a boy…a gay boy, the boyfriend of one of the main characters, Kurt.
This isn’t a ‘he thinks Blaine is really cool’ kind of love. It is a mooning at a picture of Blaine’s face for a half hour followed by a wistful “He’s so pretty” kind of love.
He loves the episode where two boys kiss. My son will call people in from other parts of the house to make sure they don’t miss his ‘favorite part.’ He’s been known to rewind it and watch it over again…and force other to, as well, if he doesn’t think people have been paying enough attention.
Click the clicky and read every single bit of it. If more parents were like this, we wouldn’t have to have things like the It Gets Better project.
A federal grand jury in Vermont has indicted Timothy Miller, a Mennonite missionary who is accused of aiding Lisa Miller (no relation) in abducting 9-year-old Isabella Miller-Jenkins and taking her to Nicaragua.
According to the Associated Press, the indictment was dated May 12. According to an AP update, Timothy Miller remains free on bond.
Lisa Miller entered a Vermont civil union in 2000 with her then-partner, Janet Jenkins. After conceiving Isabella, Miller declared herself to be an “ex-lesbian” evangelical Christian and absconded to Virginia with Isabella in violation of family-court rulings granting visitation rights to Jenkins. In an interview with Christian media, Miller acknowledged a past of emotional instability and abuse, and indicated that she had not been sexually attracted to Jenkins despite her claim to be ex-lesbian. In late 2009, after years of adverse court rulings, Miller fled the country with Isabella, and full legal custody of Isabella was granted to Jenkins in Miller’s absence.
CBN News says Timothy Miller could face up to three years in prison and a $250,000 fine if convicted.
It’s got to be pretty painful for hate group leader Tony Perkins when these days, he even loses debates on Fox News. Watch as Bernard Whitman of Faith In America, a gay father himself, clearly calls Tony out for his lies regarding gay parenting and the anti-gay Arizona adoption bill. I hope the anti-gay Religious Right is making plans for their coming irrelevancy, because if this is all they’ve got, the clock is ticking.
Of course — until Christian Rightists elevate themselves above God and say otherwise.
