So, Brian, given your view of these matters (which I’m sure those of us on the other side of the debate will never sway you), what are you proposing be done about this? It sounds like you don’t want to allow children to be born into non-”normal” families. Does your moral code require legislation to prevent this? Who gets to dictate who is allowed to have children and who isn’t?

False. What studies *have* shown is that single-parent children are worse off, and you have no basis for inferring that it is a problem of sexual difference, rather than simply a problem of the number of parents. Can you find a legitimate study that shows single gay parents are worse than single straight parents?

“True are false: Studies have proven that same-gender 2-parent households are no WORSE thsn 2-parent different-gender households (implying a less than or equal to relationship.)”

Um, faulty logic. Last time I checked, “no worse” means “equal to or better than.” “I scored no worse than 80% on my test” means I got at least 80%.

Back to your initial definition of parenting’s goal: “It is about the child being given the best possible chance at a normal life, and by default lesbians giving birth doesn’t do that.”

What keeps that child from being “normal?” From what I can tell, it’s only people like you who will tell that child he/she’s not normal.

There are some upstanding members of society who survived growing up with a single-welfare mother, but we aren’t celebrating the normalcy of welfare moms and applauding them for occaisionally raising upstanding members of society.

Vicki Frey, what PC craptrap have you been eating that you think having a father isn’t important? There have been an equal number of studies indicating fathers and mothers love their children differently and that men and women have different brain patterns. Purposely short-shrifting a child of that experience for your own happiness is appauling.

What other reason than personal happiness could you possibly offer me that Mary Cheney and her partner are concieving a child “together?” If they wanted to provide a loving home to a child they could always have adopted, instead they chose to play pretend and have their own child, which they will raise in a fatherless home because it feeeeeeeels good.

Don’t get me started on the “homophobia” crap. True or false: A family consiting of two lesbians and a child has no father. True or false: Studies have proven that children who lack either a mother or father figure are generally worse off than counterparts who have both. True are false: Studies have proven that same-gender 2-parent households are no WORSE thsn 2-parent different-gender households (implying a less than or equal to relationship.)

This isn’t about fear of homosexuals, it is about valuing human life and a giving children the best possible childhood. Homosexual activists don’t see anyone but themselves. All they see is their happiness being derided and that makes them angry, so they call anyone who dares argue the proven superiority of having a mother and a father as parental figures as a homophobe. They are the ones who want to upset the social order with statistically inferior relationships and in general warpt the social structures. The religious right isn’t playing offense, it is homosexual activists who are trying to impose their will on the rest of us. Anyone who can’t see that is blind.

I guess the only thing I really can’t fail to say is that there’s no overwhelming proof that having a “father” is of overweening importance other than as the motive (think “sperm”) part of conception. There are sufficient studies to prove that it’s the amount of love, interaction, care, and consideration in homes which produces “normal” kids, not what gender provides that homelife.

I’d say it’s worse to have a homophobic male parent than it is to have a loving lesbian parent.

[Note please: I am not a lesbian; I AM of a generation that seems to have more than its fair share of homophobes. I simply feel that PEOPLE are the important thing - people and how they raise their children. There's just no reason to assume that every child MUST HAVE a "christian-ethic" father in the home in order to be loved and to grow up a "normal loving human being".... which is what a lot of the homophobia zeros out to meaning....]

But thanks for reminding me what bigotry and homophobia look like.

Forget that child, it is just a commodity. Why stop at one, why not get an Afro-baby, I hear they accessorize well with other hollywood bimbo accessories.

When will people learn that having children isn’t about how happy it makes the parents? It is about the child being given the best possible chance at a normal life, and by default lesbians giving birth doesn’t do that. What a disgrace that people are making excuses for this kind of nonsense. This isn’t like adoption where you are saving a kid from a horrible life, this is a planned action that circumvents physical reality in order to make two women mommies for their own personal happiness.

Sorry, I just had to get this out. I know it will be removed soon, but I grow weary of every post that celebrates the continued perversion of America in the name of “equality for all”. This isn’t equality for all, it is intentionally short-shrifting a child from a father. That isn’t equality, that is tragedy.

But hey, as long as we can call traditional values and common sense backwards bigotry while taking a swipe at those mean old homophobes, who cares?

Absolutely positively…. I SO agree with you on this! And I honor this couple for wanting to be parents no matter what the fallout is likely to be – I’m pretty sure it’ll be extreme, which is sad for them, for their child, and ultimately for all of us.

I was a single mother for 9 years. Then I married again, and my daughter had two parents. During both parts of her childhood, she was very much loved and of course is to this day; had her second parent been another woman instead of a man, I don’t see how that would have mattered. What MATTERS is loving your children – not who does that loving.

I so desperately want to see a day when gender has nothing to do with anything (other than the obvious that so far in this world’s history, only women are able to bear children) – but I do not believe that will happen in my remaining life span.

Wake up people. What matters is children who are loved and cared for and who learn to love and care by that example. It’s time to let your narrow puritanism die a natural death.

Agreed, and I can’t wait for a future where nobody will condemn consenting adults for what they do with their personal lives.

I just don’t understand these people who think that any child is doomed who is brought up by a family that doesn’t consist of one man and one woman. There are all kinds of reasons why children are raised by a single parent, or by people who are not married (ie, a mother and a grandmother, father and uncle, family friend/godparent, etc.). As long as the home is loving and nurturing for the child, WHO CARES?

Where is that line between the public’s “right to know” and the individual’s “right to privacy”?

How is about those criticising Cheney and partner have their “right to conception” subjected to the same level of public debate?