Proposition 8 is About Kids

Children have become the absolute last consideration when it comes to marriage. And it is heterosexual couples who have made marriage what it is today. No-fault divorce, cohabitation in place of marriage, an increase in out-of-wedlock births, and intentional single-parent families have created a sense that marriage is simply an optional contract in an array of choices.

Children have long suffered at the hands of adult selfishness. For many the foundation of love and security that should stand beneath them has been taken away; that foundation is a loving mother and father (man and woman) who are committed in marriage to love and honor each other and to love and care for their children for the rest of their lives. This is the original meaning of marriage, and I think we can all agree that this is the ideal. It is the ideal because it provides for each child, and therefore each person in society (as we were all children once), the security that comes with being loved and raised by the two people who created them and who have unbreakable bonds with them because of that connection. It is also the ideal because it provides for each child the balancing influence of both the male and female sex, which studies have shown is necessary for healthy development. When a child is deprived of either mother or father, there is a sense of loss that cannot be denied.

This is not to say that single, divorced, or homosexual parents cannot raise a child well, or even raise them to be better off than they might have been otherwise. But marriage between a man and a woman remains the ideal because it is the only union that provides committed mothers and fathers to children.

This is why, regardless of how badly we have destroyed marriage to this point, we need to uphold it and work to rebuild it to what it was always intended to be—not tear it down or redefine it. For once we need to think about what's in the best interest of our children, not just what we want for ourselves.

If we do not vote YES on Proposition 8, conditions that have always been considered unfortunate for a child will instead be called fortunate. We will not be able to acknowledge that children in homosexual marriages are missing something they long for, as the law will equate these unions with heterosexual marriage. It will become discriminatory to speak the truth that children need both a mother and father in their lives.

It's time to put the needs of our kids first, and vote YES on Proposition 8.