Saying, "the voice of those
children is important in this case, don't you think," Supreme Court
Justice Anthony Kennedy linked the marriage-equality cases before the courts
with education. Justice
Kennedy was responding to an assertion by Solicitor General Donald Verilli
that for children, disqualifying their same-sex parents from marriage "has
effects on them in the here and now. A stabilizing effect is not there. When
they go to school, ... they don't have parents like everybody else's
parents." The voice of the children and the impact on education is an
often-overlooked fact in this debate but one where there is a growing consensus
on the positive impact marriage equality will have.
Just as polls show growing
and now majority acceptance of gay marriage, there is a trending
acknowledgement in social-science circles that their unions are
"not a major determinant in how well children fare in school,
on cognitive tests and in terms of their emotional development." Since
2004, marriage equality has existed in Massachusetts, and NAEP scores in that
state are still the best in the nation. Far more important than family
composition for student success is stability, parental involvement, and
economic resources. Allowing same-sex families the stability of marriage,
parental rights to both partners, and the
tax advantages of marriage will benefit the children in all three areas--
they'll be more secure, feel more accepted, and be better off financially. By
declaring marriage equality, the Supreme Court would be siding with these
children.
As the solicitor general correctly
noted, the children of same-sex couples cannot help but observe the
discriminatory status their parents receive in the forty-two states where
marriage is defined as between a man and a woman. This slight negatively
influences these children in a much more profound way than any study shows
being a child of a same-sex couple does. Codifying this institution into
federal law will grant more acceptance not only for the adult partners but also
for their children. As a American Academy of Pediatrics policy
statement said, "If a child has two living and capable parents who choose
to create a permanent bond by way of civil marriage, it is in the best
interests of their child(ren) that legal and social institutions allow and
support them to do so."
While social institutions and
tradition definitions deserve deference, the long arc of history confirms that
progress is only made through the extension of rights. Whether or not you
believe that extending the right to marry to same-sex couples is correct, it
will not be detrimental to education. In fact, it will be a positive. Allowing
biracial marriages as the Supreme Court did in Loving V. Virginia has certainly been a huge net positive for
children and schools. And, while some of the very same
arguments posited now existed then, they have been proved as fallacy.
The court, while
unlikely to make a sweeping ruling allowing same-sex marriages across the
nation, must not allow the inept arguments of same-sex families harming
children and education any place in its final ruling. Children do best with
under the loving support of two caring parents. Whether or not the parents are
heterosexual or homosexual should not be a factor.
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