Gender Programming.

In other news, here are some thoughts that occurred to me today after attending my Marriage & Family class (I love college.)

Why are people so afraid of children being raised by gay/lesbian parents? We learn much from our parents, I'll readily agree, and the argument I hear most against children being raised in such an environment is that they will learn homosexuality from their parents despite studies that show children raised by gay/lesbian parents are no more likely to become homosexual than a child raised within a heterosexual coupling. As I read more of the argument against adoption of children by gays and lesbians, one popped out at me as incredibly significant: children will not learn appropriate gender roles because both of their parents are same-sex, which will result in confusion.

I'm sorry, but I honestly think that we could all do with a little less programming in that area. Gender roles put unfair pressures on BOTH sexes, not just women. Men are socialized to be providers, and women caretakers; men are stoic, women emotional (and so on and so forth.) I could probably go on for this for hours because I'm into the meaning of gender and whatnot, but my point is, I think we've all felt like we don't belong somewhere at least once in our lives. What if how we feel or what we do doesn't coincide with our assigned role?

I would assume (and this is just a prediction, because limited research has been done on same-sex couples who have children anyway) that children raised by same-sex couples would have more egalitarian attitudes in their own relationships, and perhaps benefit from negative "gender programming".

Having no radio in my car coupled with a 45-minute drive home from school definitely facilitates these thought processes. ;)