Keeping Families Together
The Asian And Pacific Islander Family Pride Blog
May 11, 2012
What A Great Gift We Were All Given. Happy Mother’s Day!
By BELINDA AND JOHN DRONKERS-LAURETA
To all mothers, Happy Mother’s Day; To all mothers of LGBT children: Happy Mother’s Day; To all LGBT mothers: Happy Mother’s Day!
We were given a fabulous Mother’s Day gift this year. President Obama said in an interview that: “. . . it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same sex couples should be able to get married.” It may be politics, though some think it isn’t, regardless, it is a historic event: a sitting U.S president, the first person of color so elected, came out in favor of an issue that a few years ago was not only not mentioned, but unmentionable.
You know we believe that the outcome of the battle for same sex marriage is moot; it is won, demography is in our favor. Same sex marriage won’t be an issue at all in the 2016 presidential campaign. In fact, we believe that it won’t be much of one in this election. We read in one of the many reports on President Obama’s interview that increasingly Americans are in favor of same-sex marriage as older voters are supplanted by younger ones.
Still, President Obama’s announcement is a big, glorious milestone. People will remember where they were when they heard the news. It will be cited in future research papers and it will be used as a turning point in the history of LGBT people’s fight for equal status under the law. The 49% percent of America’s black population and 43% of its white population who still oppose same sex marriage, will shrink to irrelevant numbers. Nobody questions the right for women to vote and few still believe school segregation should be law.
So to all mothers, savor the time with your children on your day. Soon no one will believe that anyone has the right to dictate who your children can spend their life with.
Belinda and John Dronkers-Laureta are board members of Asian & Pacific Islander Family Pride www.apifamilypride.org
