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Why Can't My Moms Marry?
Toronto Star ^ | February 18, 2005 | Matthew Eaton-Kent

Posted on 02/18/2005 7:11:48 AM PST by srm913

Why can't my moms marry? His parents have been together for 27 years, yet many still question their right to tie the knot, says Matthew Eaton-Kent

It was the day before Father's Day and my Grade 1 class was just putting the finishing touches on the wooden desk organizers we had made. My class had spent weeks sanding down the blocks of wood, adding magnets for paper clips, holders for pens and a spot for an eraser. Today was the day we were going to engrave the word "Dad" into the top of the organizers.

I had worked really hard on my present but I had a problem. I was not going to give my organizer to my dad because I didn't have one. I was going to give my present to one of my two moms.

I wasn't sure what she would think if I brought it home and it had the word dad on it. So I sat there quietly as all the other children took turns hammering the metal stamps, which read "dad," into the wood. I was getting nervous as my turn with the engraving tool grew closer. Finally, I got up and approached the teacher's desk.

She asked me what was wrong. I reluctantly told her that I didn't have a dad and that I was making this gift for my mother. She told me I had nothing to worry about and handed me the stamps with the "m" and "o" for mom.

That's how it has always been in my family. One of my mother's celebrates Mother's Day while the other celebrates Father's Day. Sure, it was a bit awkward at school but it didn't make my family any less of a family. In fact we kids thought it was a great way to recognize both of our moms.

However, there is something that makes my family different from a lot of families. The difference is that my parents have never been married.

The reason my parents have never been married is not because they don't want to but because, by law, they couldn't.

Their relationship was not recognized because marriage was defined as between a man and a woman. It has been very hurtful to my parents, the gay community and believers in human rights that there has been so much opposition to same-sex marriage. It's been hurtful to my sister and me, too. Very hurtful!

Personally I am perplexed by the extreme opposition to changing the definition of marriage so it can include unions between two people, any two people. As someone born into a generation of political correctness and void of any blatant racism, sexism or xenophobia, it is hard to deal with the hateful nature of the opponents of same-sex marriage.

I am not sure why they don't view the love of my parents as equal to the love between two people of the opposite sex. If they question the commitment, they should note the 27 years my parents have spent together and the way they have cherished my sister and me.

I find a lot of the hate and opposition comes from many of the institutions that promote peace, love and understanding. Some churches have fought the right of same-sex couples to marry.

I wish they would look back in history to a time when religious freedom was jeopardized. People who were historically persecuted are all too willing to be prejudiced, all in the name of God.

I am a teenager growing up in an era of equality, an era where blacks are equal to whites, where a man is equal to a woman. This era should include same-sex marriage and my parents.

All of us are made in the image of God, are we not?

Matthew Eaton-Kent, 17, is a Grade 11 honours student and avid athlete. He lives with his two moms, 14-year-old sister, two dogs and one cat in Halton Hills, just outside Toronto.


TOPICS: Canada; Culture/Society; Editorial
KEYWORDS: homosexualagenda; marriage
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To: srm913
Hmmm - his "moms" were together 10 years before he was born - I wonder who the sperm donor was, and how it was decided???

We were made "in the image of God", but it should be noted that God is always attributed with a masculine gender and His Word says that homosexual activity is an abomination. Don't you just love it when those who disagree with God, try to use Him as a reason why we should agree with them??? What irony.

81 posted on 02/18/2005 8:06:58 AM PST by trebb ("I am the way... no one comes to the Father, but by me..." - Jesus in John 14:6 (RSV))
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To: doug from upland

God is love.
Love is blind.
Ray Charles is also blind.
Therefore, Ray Charles is god.

I have a lesbian mother #1, and,
I have a lesbian mother #2.
We all listen to Evanescence, including the pets.
So, why can't we all git hitched?


82 posted on 02/18/2005 8:08:46 AM PST by tumblindice (Our Founding Fathers: all conservative gun owners)
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To: dead
What is the mechanism of this pain, and how will a mere change in nomenclature relieve it?

Simple. That little piece of paper gives same sex couples a legal right to "shout to the whole world about their tremendous love and commitment" and there's nothing bigots can do about but sit and take it.

I suppose somewhere in this boy's past, he was told by intolerant homophobes that his "moms'" relationship was "hurtful" or "wrong" and these ladies have channeled their repressed guilt through hostility at the rest of the wrold for denying them their rightful place. If the law says homosexual marriage is okay, and you do not accept their relationship, you are in violation of the law; in essence anyone who doesn't acknowledge their legal status would be a criminal. After all, if two people of the same sex marrying is legal, then (not unlike abortion) it must be also be morally right.

83 posted on 02/18/2005 8:14:49 AM PST by two134711
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Comment #84 Removed by Moderator

To: doug from upland
However, there is something that makes my family different from a lot of families. The difference is that my parents have never been married.

That sentence is so far off the mark...

A) No, that fact is about the only thing that makes your family RESEMBLE other families. You don't have the corner on that market (kids out-of-wedlock, divorced/widowed parents who choose not to marry their new "friend", etc).

B) The thing that makes your family different from other families is that your Mom engages in an activity that makes marriage illegal. Like, if your Mom had instead chosen an already married man as her lover. Or a priest.

See, equal rights doesn't mean special rights, kid. And the definition of marriage is between a man and a woman.

Now, maybe your mommy and her girlfriend can start a movement for gays to create another entity...like a 'damirion', and that can be a legal union between whatever and whomever they want, and maybe the laws could get changed and we can have 'damirion' ceremonies, or something.

But marriage...it's pretty clear two women don't qualify, just like I don't qualify for a minority scholarship because I don't fit the definition of "minority".

85 posted on 02/18/2005 8:19:52 AM PST by sandalwood (The sky was yellow and the sun was blue)
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To: srm913

Somewhere out there Matt had a biological father. If he is alive he could give the block of wood to him. He is in denial if he thinks he never had a father.


86 posted on 02/18/2005 8:20:10 AM PST by finnman69 (cum puella incedit minore medio corpore sub quo manifestus globus, inflammare animos)
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To: srm913

What's next--Why can't my moms who are also my aunts marry?


87 posted on 02/18/2005 8:22:36 AM PST by riri
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To: srm913
Matthew Eaton-Kent, 17, is a Grade 11 honours student and avid athlete

Ever notice how often liberal-agenda articles hinge on the opinions of children and teens? 

Is it because their beliefs only make sense in in the context of an immature mind?

88 posted on 02/18/2005 8:23:29 AM PST by Psycho_Bunny (“I know a great deal about the Middle East because I’ve been raising Arabian horses" Patrick Swazey)
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To: srm913
I read the article in a PETA publication. Here is how it was presented there:

Why Can't My Mom Marry Her Donkey Lover?

PETA | February 18, 2005 | Matthew Eaton-Kent

---Why can't my mom and donkey marry? His caregivers have been together for 27 years, yet many still question their right to tie the knot, says Matthew Eaton-Kent.---

It was the day before Father's Day and my Grade 1 class was just putting the finishing touches on the wooden desk organizers we had made. My class had spent weeks sanding down the blocks of wood, adding magnets for paper clips, holders for pens and a spot for an eraser. Today was the day we were going to engrave the word "Dad" into the top of the organizers.

I had worked really hard on my present but I had a problem. I was not going to give my organizer to my dad because I didn't have one. I was going to give my present to my mom's donkey lover.

I wasn't sure what mom would think if I brought it home and it had the word dad on it. So I sat there quietly as all the other children took turns hammering the metal stamps, which read "dad," into the wood. I was getting nervous as my turn with the engraving tool grew closer.

Finally, I got up and approached the teacher's desk. She asked me what was wrong. I reluctantly told her that I didn't have a dad and that I was making this gift for my mother's donkey lover. She told me I had nothing to worry about and handed me the stamps with the letters for "donkey."

That's how it has always been in my family. My mother celebrates Mother's Day while the donkey lover is honored on Father's Day. Sure, it was a bit awkward at school but it didn't make my family any less of a family. In fact we kids thought it was a great way to recognize both my mom and the wonderful creature of another species.

However, there is something that makes my family different from a lot of families. The difference is that my mom and donkey lover have never been married.

The reason they have never been married is not because they don't want to but because, by law, they couldn't.

Their relationship was not recognized because marriage was defined as between a man and a woman. It has been very hurtful to them, to the gay community, to PETA and other believers in human an animal rights that there has been so much opposition to trans-species marriage. It's been hurtful to my sister and me, too. Very hurtful!

Personally I am perplexed by the extreme opposition to changing the definition of marriage so it can include unions between a person and an animal, any persons and any animal. As someone born into a generation of political correctness and void of any blatant racism, sexism or xenophobia, it is hard to deal with the hateful nature of the opponents of trans-species marriage.

I am not sure why they don't view the love of my parents as equal to the love between two human beings. If they question the commitment, they should note the 27 years my parents have spent together and the way they have cherished my sister and me.

I find a lot of the hate and opposition comes from many of the institutions that promote peace, love and understanding. Some churches have fought the right of trans-species couples to marry.

I wish they would look back in history to a time when religious freedom was jeopardized. People who were historically persecuted are all too willing to be prejudiced, all in the name of God.

I am a teenager growing up in an era of equality, an era where blacks are equal to whites, where a man is equal to a woman. This era should include trans-species marriage and my parents.

All of us, including our barnyard friends, are made in the image of God, are we not?

Matthew Eaton-Kent, 17, is a Grade 11 honours student and avid athlete. He lives with his mom, Mr. Ed, 14-year-old sister, two dogs and one cat in Halton Hills, just outside Toronto. His favorite food is hay. His dad often takes him for a ride to the store.

89 posted on 02/18/2005 8:26:24 AM PST by doug from upland (Ray Charles --- a great musician and safer driver than Ted Kennedy)
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To: doug from upland
I've wondered if a man who was once a woman has ever married a woman who was once a man.

Mentally unbalanced people attract other mentally unbalanced people, so I'd bet a paycheck that has happened. At least once.
90 posted on 02/18/2005 8:27:42 AM PST by ChocChipCookie (Really! I'm just a nice little stay-at-home mom!)
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To: srm913
All of us are made in the image of God, are we not?

Why yes Matthew, we are. But what you fail to put into the equation are two gifts we have been given by God, specifically His Word, and free will.

It is up to the individual how he is going to live his life. If a person wants to completely ignore God's Word in favor of sinful behaviors, that is possible. But do not expect others to offer their full support of a lifestyle that is clearly prohibited in the Bible, unhealthy, and defies the laws of nature.

Matthew has been corrupted, and this is more disgusting to me than the relationship of his "mothers".

91 posted on 02/18/2005 8:30:15 AM PST by SaveTheChief (There are 10 types of people -- those who understand binary, and those who don't.)
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To: Protagoras
This kid doesn't exist IMO.

It doesn't pass the smell test.

I agree. This looks like typical liberal advocacy fraud. To left-wingers, acting is reality.

92 posted on 02/18/2005 8:31:02 AM PST by TChris (Most people's capability for inference is severely overestimated)
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To: camle

If you're already boring her, why bother?


93 posted on 02/18/2005 8:32:32 AM PST by Old Professer (When the fear of dying no longer obtains no act is unimaginable.)
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To: ChocChipCookie

Faith: Woman marries herself
By Uwe Siemon-Netto
UPI Religion Editor

Published 3/12/2003 5:50 PM

WASHINGTON, March 12 (UPI) -- For Jennifer Hoes, a Dutch student, May 28 will be a doubly exciting day. She'll turn 30, and she'll be a blushing bride -- plus her own groom. In the Trouwzaal, or wedding room, of the City Hall of Haarlem in the Netherlands, Jennifer will marry herself.

Bedecked in a wedding gown studded with 200 perfect latex copies of her own nipples, Jennifer will appear before Ruud Grondel, Haarlem's registrar, and promise to "love, respect and honor" herself in good times and in bad, according to Dutch and German newspaper reports.

Then Jennifer, her mother, her uncle, aunts, cousins and some other 80 relatives will indulge in a $22,000 wedding feast. That done, Jennifer's wedding garment, studs included, will wind up in the show window of the shop that manufactured it free of charges.

Jennifer pretty much acknowledges that hers will be the quintessential postmodern union. "We live in a 'Me' society. Hence it is logical that one promises to be faithful to oneself," she told a reporter of Der Spiegel, the leading German newsmagazine.

This leaves of course a number of unanswered questions: Will she fall for the postmodern rage and adopt a double-barreled name -- Jennifer Hoes-Hoes, for example? And what if she ceases to like herself -- will divorce be an option, and which Hoes will get the car?

Indeed, what if she should fall in love with somebody else deeply enough to wed him -- must she first send herself packing? In case she doesn't but still says, "I do," to the guy, would this be considered an act of bigamy? Could she go to jail for that? "There's room for two rings of my finger," she said.

In more ways than one, Jennifer ought to be congratulated. Intentionally or unintentionally, she is taking the Mickey out of a nutty society determined to deconstruct matrimony, a state most religions and cultures have since time immemorial held up as holy and essential for the health of communities and nations.

To be sure, Jennifer's auto-marriage will be a secular event. But, rest assured, it won't be long before some churches and synagogues will give such unions their blessing. To paraphrase Malcolm Muggeridge, there is no cause mad enough not to enlist the services of demented clergymen strumming their guitars.

Think of those Dutch, Danish, German and indeed American clerics asking men and men and women and women to kiss each other after they appeared with white carnations in their lapels before the altar. Think of the pastors sealing these unions with the sign of the cross.

Think of Bob Edgar, general secretary of the National Council of Churches of Christ, who in the year 2000 withdrew his signature from an interdenominational "Marriage Declaration" defining matrimony as a union between a man and a woman.

At their ordination, all these ministers promised to uphold Scripture, which makes it very clear that marriage between man and woman is an order of creation. It an essential element in man's role as God's cooperator in the ongoing process of creation.

Seen from the monotheistic perspective, Jennifer's "marriage" is the quintessence of idolatry; it is a bow before what Christopher Hershman, a pastor and psychologist in Allentown, Pa., calls the "postmodern Trinity": Me, Myself and I.

Jennifer doesn't say, but perhaps she got the idea of marrying herself after years of observing same-sex pairs of seemingly identical twins all over the place. If so, she is to be commended. What better way mock a culture, which is so much into itself that its generally youthful exponents -- their mobile phones glued to their ears -- keep banging into you in the street because they simply do not see you unless you look precisely like them.

Whatever folly visits Holland will soon cross the Atlantic. That's a rule of thumb. One shudders to think of the ornaments on the wedding gowns worn at one-person weddings and then exhibited in American malls.

By God, if any mad event underscores the need for a federal amendment declaring marriage as a union solely between a man and a woman -- an amendment introduced in Congress in 2001 -- Jennifer Hoes's wedding will certainly fit the bill.

Look at Haarlem, the Netherlands, on May 28, and sniff the postmodern rot. This might well become America's future -- or, rather, no future at all.


94 posted on 02/18/2005 8:33:27 AM PST by doug from upland (Ray Charles --- a great musician and safer driver than Ted Kennedy)
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To: srm913

"All of us are made in the image of God, are we not?"

Aboslutely however He made a MAN for a WOMAN and a WOMAN for a MAN.


95 posted on 02/18/2005 8:33:36 AM PST by nmh (Intelligent people recognize Intelligent Design (God).)
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To: camle

"i've had my cat boring, fat and grey for ten years. can I marry her? we love each other."

But of course!

I love my roses so can I marry the prettiest one?

BTW, my cat turen d 20 years old this February. I've had her as a kitten, so can I marry her because I love her too?

;)

It's getting sicker out there.



96 posted on 02/18/2005 8:35:31 AM PST by nmh (Intelligent people recognize Intelligent Design (God).)
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To: srm913
Why can't my moms marry? ... says Matthew Eaton-Kent

A marriage consists of a husband and a wife. Which one will be the husband, Matthew?

97 posted on 02/18/2005 8:36:40 AM PST by TigersEye (Intellectuals only exist if you think they do.)
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To: edcoil
What this whole gay marriage kerfluffle is all about is acceptance. They want a stamp of approval on their lifestyle. If you read the writers, especially Sullivan, that's the bottom line. The arguments about medical benefits aren't the real reason why it's being pushed (although with AIDS it's certainly an issue). That's why civil unions are not enough.

Of course, it won't work. Even if the imposition of gay marriage -- even if it's actually voted on by actual non-judicial-type people -- is not followed with rampant divorces and a culture of open gay marriage, society will accept homosexuality only to a limited extent.

I could say this probably stems from a psychological need for acceptance that is much more familial, but why speculate on the obvious?

98 posted on 02/18/2005 8:50:57 AM PST by AmishDude
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To: doug from upland

Their new sex, and they go into the surgical reassignment knowing this ie a lesbian trapped in a man's body


99 posted on 02/18/2005 8:51:04 AM PST by Ignatius J Reilly
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To: Protagoras

If this person exists (and I'm not as skeptical as you), I wonder if he's currently in therapy. It sounds like he should be.


100 posted on 02/18/2005 8:52:36 AM PST by AmishDude
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