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Justice Kennedy, Henry David Thoreau, and the Children of Gays and Lesbians

Both the majority opinion in last summer's same-sex marriage case and recent public statements point to a troubling lack of coherence in Justice Anthony Kennedy's thinking.
Consider the intellectual consequences of the foundational belief that humanity can be “planned.” Such a belief means that humans can be edited and arranged; it makes children into objects rather than subjects.
We need offensive cartoons, obnoxious cartoonists, and offended sensibilities. Without them, society stagnates and tyranny reigns.
The dream of a sex-positive socialist Catholicism based on Marx and liberation theology tells kids to stop complaining when they suffer the consequences of adults’ sexual selfishness. Sexual radicalism and extreme pro-LGBT advocacy have no positive role to play in Catholic higher education.
Dehumanizing others through censorship does not befit the academy, but the pigpen.
Underground movements in England and France are beginning to counter the global LGBT ideology that has entrenched itself in the governments of First-World nations.
While US conservatives are distracted by internal debates, the wealthy and powerful international movement for LGBT rights is aggressively targeting nations that are poorer and less powerful.
Single-parenting and divorce have always been understood as a breakdown of the married mom and dad ideal, but the demand to view same-sex parenting as “normal” imposes a silence on children about the wound caused by the loss of one parent or the other.
After the French protests against same-sex marriage, we can no longer speak of redefined marriage as inevitable or enlightened.
During oral arguments on Prop 8, Justice Kennedy alluded to the views of children of same-sex couples as if their desires and concerns are identical to and uncritical of their parents’ decisions. But the reality is far more complicated.
Whatever same-sex marriage is, that’s not what gays are after. They are after a symbolic vehicle that can make them equal to people who can do something they cannot—procreate.
Unlikely characters, including gay men, are leading the French people in protest against redefining marriage. A repeating refrain is “the rights of children trump the right to children.” Americans should follow their example of mobilizing across party lines.
The children of same-sex couples have a tough road ahead of them—I know, because I have been there. The last thing we should do is make them feel guilty if the strain gets to them and they feel strange.