To whom do children belong?: How same-sex marriage threatens parental rights

Same-sex marriage further encourages the state to encroach on the domain of that indispensable pre-political community, the family. The first in a two-part series.

Same-sex marriage is often touted as a harmless expansion of individual liberty. Yet the legal redefinition of marriage to include same-sex couples has far from innocuous consequences, particularly with regard to children’s well-being and religious liberty. Redefining marriage also strikes at our fundamental liberties in deeper though less obvious ways.

A crucial aspect of liberty is respect for subsidiarity—in particular, recognition that the family, based on marriage, is a pre-political community with natural and original authority over its internal affairs, especially the education and upbringing of children. Redefining marriage in law to include same-sex couples undermines the principled basis for the primacy of parental childrearing authority by obliterating the link between marriage and procreation as well as the norm of conjoined biological parenthood that conjugal marriage laws help to foster. What was once almost unanimously understood to be a normative ideal—the intact biological family composed of married mother and father with their biological children—is now culturally (and to a large extent legally) demoted to being merely one among an increasingly wide variety of family forms.

This essay explores the implications for parental authority and subsidiarity of this promotion of new family forms. Tomorrow, I provide a principled case for the primacy of parental childrearing authority.

The view of marriage as a mere creature of the state to be redefined at will goes hand in hand with the idea that children “belong” primarily to the state, which then delegates (limited) childrearing authority to whomever the state defines as the child's parents.

We see this trend in Canada, where the 2005 bill redefining marriage to include same-sex partnerships replaced the term “natural parent” with “legal parent” throughout Canadian federal law. Similarly, in at least nineteen US states as well as the District of Columbia, same-sex partners can now both be listed as parents on a child's birth certificate, substituting politically correct legal fiction for the implacable (hetero)sexism of biological reality.

We also see the state encroaching on parental authority in order to enforce the new orthodoxy regarding sexual orientation and gender identity. “Equality” requires teaching that all family forms are equally good, and public schools do this by introducing “diversity-oriented” activities and readings - including books like Mommy, Momma and Me – across the curriculum.

California, New Jersey and the District of Columbia have made it illegal to give counseling to minors who have sexual-identity issues that in any way discourages them from fostering those tendencies, regardless of whether or not the child would like to receive such counseling, and regardless of whether or not those issues seem to stem from earlier traumas such as sexual abuse. Similar bills are pending in fifteen other states. School guidance counselors are also frequently connected with Gay-Straight Alliances and similar organizations, often placing confused teenagers in contact with such organizations without the consent or even knowledge of the parents.

In a particularly sad Massachusetts case, which I learned about from the parents involved, a teenager was sent by his guidance counselor to a gay youth organization. The organization then turned him against his family and encouraged him to stop seeing the therapist he had been seeing since childhood to deal with the effects of abuse by an older bully in school. As things escalated he was effectively kidnapped by the school guidance counselor and then taken from his home by the Department of Children and Families, without the parents ever having even been accused of abuse or neglect. The boy was eventually returned home after a second social worker investigated the case and deemed the parents to be exceptionally responsible and loving.

There is reason to believe that what happened to this family was not an isolated incident. At their booth at the Massachusetts Gay Youth Pride Parade, Department of Children and Families officials boasted about how they routinely manipulate standard processes to remove children with sexual-identity issues from the homes of conservative and Christian parents.

The ideology that would justify this sort of intrusive behavior on the part of the state was trumpeted by Melissa Harris-Perry in an MSNBC promo spot a couple of years ago. Harris-Perry claimed that “we have to break through our kind of private idea that kids belong to their parents or kids belong to their families and recognize that kids belong to whole communities.”

Her claim reflects the troubling but not uncommon view that the education of children, particularly their formal education, is first and foremost the task of the state rather than parents.

This idea is echoed in the pro-same-sex marriage amicus brief submitted to the Supreme Court by historians of marriage, which claims that “states have sought to limit the public’s responsibility for children by looking to married couples to provide support for minor dependents,” implying that married couples areagents of the state to help the larger community to raise its children.

This is effectively the position of political theorists such as Amy Gutmann, Stephen Macedo and others. They deny the primacy of parental educational authority and argue that the state can and should require children to be exposed to values and ways of life that conflict with those they are learning at home, that the state at least in principle has the right to mandate “diversity education” programs even in private schools and home schools, and that parents in principle have no right to opt their children out of such programs, even if they have a moral or religious objection to their content. These theorists would probably applaud, for instance, the law, recently passed in Alberta, which disallows parents from exempting their children from classroom discussions of homosexuality, and which requires all schools, including faith-based schools, to allow pro-homosexual student clubs like gay-straight alliances.

Of course, the views of Gutmann, Macedo, and Harris-Perry are mild when compared with progressive communal experiments like the Israeli kibbutzim of the mid-twentieth century (which broke down within a generation) or the radical communal childrearing scheme proposed by Plato in Book V of theRepublic (though whether he proposed it sincerely or as a kind of reductio ad absurdum is a matter of debate).

What all of these approaches have in common, though, is the denial of primary and pre-political parental educational authority. And this same denial is also, strikingly, a key feature of the totalitarian regimes of the past century, both fascist and communist. While Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, and Mao were hardly following Plato’s blueprint for the perfectly just society, they certainly understood, as Plato did, that the most effective (and perhaps the only) way to inculcate unquestioning acceptance of the regime’s ideals was to educate a whole generation in those ideals from childhood, and to minimize as much as possible any potentially contradictory educational influences, particularly the influence of parents. Just think of the tight state control of education in these regimes and the further indoctrination of students outside of schools in groups like the Hitler Youth, the Maoist Red Guard, or the Soviet Komsomol.

The current German law against homeschooling originated during the Nazi era. Yet despite its questionable pedigree, this law continues to be unabashedly enforced in contemporary Germany. Even when challenged as a violation of parental rights, it was upheld by the European Court of Human Rights inKonrad v. Germany (2006) on the grounds that the state’s interest in integrating children into the larger society trumps the rights of parents—grounds that echo the arguments of political theorists like Gutmann and Macedo. As a result, parents have no choice but to send their children to state-approved schools, even if they believe the environment or curriculum to be harmful.

The story of the Romeike family highlights the injustice of this situation. Uwe and Hannelore Romeike, along with their five children, lived in a southwest German town called Bietigheim-Bissinge, where their three oldest children attended the public schools. All was well until the parents began to notice istressing changes in their children. After further investigation, Mr. Romeike was appalled to find that their son Daniel’s health textbook used foul language to refer to sexual acts, and was concerned more generally that the values conveyed in his children’s classes and readings conflicted with the Christian moral and religious values he and his wife strove to pass on to their children at home.

In response, the Romeikes pulled their children out of the public schools and began educating them at home. A protracted battle with state authorities ensued, including police attempts to enter the Romeikes’ home and bring the children to school by force, along with onerous fines adding up to 7,000 Euros. Fearing imprisonment and loss of custody of their children, the Romeikes moved to the United States where they would be free to educate their children as they thought best. Although their request for asylum was denied—a bad sign with regard to respect for parental rights on the part of the current United States government—they were granted permission to remain indefinitely in the country shortly before their scheduled deportation in 2014.

The Johansson family in Sweden—where homeschooling has also been illegal since 2010—was not so fortunate. In 2009, when seven-year-old Domenic Johansson and his parents were on an airplane about to leave Sweden permanently for India (his mother’s home country), armed Swedish police entered the plane and took Domenic into custody on the grounds that he was homeschooled, despite the facts that school was not in session and that homeschooling was still legal at the time. Social workers also claimed that the presence of some cavities in Domenic’s baby teeth constituted evidence of physical neglect.

Since then, Domenic has lived in a foster home, with state-supervised parental visitation for a mere hour every five weeks. A Swedish court definitively terminated the Johanssons’ parental rights in 2012, primarily on the basis that their “isolation” of Domenic from other children his own age was psychologically harmful. The European Court of Human Rights upheld the decision in January 2015, but the Johanssons have not given up hope. They are bringing a new case to the Swedish courts in the hopes of finally being reunited with their now twelve-year-old son. Dozens of other Swedish families have fled the country in order to be able to homeschool their children.

If Gutmann, Macedo, Harris-Perry and others are correct, and children dobelong to the larger community at least as much as they belong to their parents, then the state’s views about the best way to raise and educate children should trump the parents’ views, and there is no principled basis for opposing the sorts of intrusive state actions described above. By treating marriage and family as a mere construct of the state, and denying the normativity of the intact biological family, the majority in Obergefell have effectively enshrined this statist vision of childrearing in our law.

But if the intact biological family is a natural pre-political community – if parents, not the state, have primary and pre-political educational authority over their children – then the family is effectively a little sovereign community within the larger political community, and, like any sovereign community, it has the right to direct its own internal affairs free from coercive external interference (except in clear cases abuse, neglect, or serious threats to public order). It is this latter position that I aim to defend tomorrow.

Melissa Moschella is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the Catholic University of America. Her book, To Whom Do Children Belong? Parental Rights, Civic Education and Children’s Autonomy is forthcoming from Cambridge University Press.

Repeating here a horrible development that is under the radar.

People who are homosexual are now able to bring forth new human life. The Church and many are deceived to think that homosexuals cannot reproduce humans but they can, I will explain.

Homosexual women are able to conceive via artificial insemination using the sperm of homosexual men. And the sperm they use is knowingly taken from homosexual men.

Although it is true that children brought into the world this way will likely not be inclined to homosexuality, they will never be allowed to know a man-woman relationship in marriage.

Do not think that homosexual couples confine their perversion only to sexual acts. Their perversion extends beyond acts of sex into all dimensions of their thinking.

This means they allow themselves to think of a world without heterosexuality. You can infer all that follows from that revelation.

Marxists destroy language to control the perceptions of ignorant masses.

There is no such thing as a “homosexual marriage”-—it destroys meaning of words and is an impossibility. It is irrational. Nothing irrational, or evil (destroying biological connections on purpose/Natural Rights and Natural Duties) can be made into a “Just” Law. It is unconstitutional. All evil “Just Laws” are “null and void” since it is an oxymoron. Anything as dehumanizing as selling and buying babies-—which this evil system enables, is anathema to the Constitution and Natural Rights which are UNALIENABLE——they come from GOD-—not man or government. They can’t be changed. SCOTUS needs to be in prison for Treason.

And that is the point with the Prussian school system we adopted. It is for social engineering only-—to make children so irrational they believe anything stated by their masters (MSM which is controlled by a few sodomite elites).

The psychology embedded into curricula since really before the 70s, is to put children in artificial environments (destroy the Natural Family) so that the state can control all emotions/desires-—and they drug them to get the right results.

As Fichte stated in 1810 to make children so irrational they believe “snow is black” and Up is Down and Boys are Girls.

They dehumanize children when they destroy their biological connections which is their window to the past and present and gives them individuality and meaning and purpose. Remove any of that-—and you are dehumanizing them-—destroying their history. It is dehumanizing and for collectivization of radical egalitarianism (Marxism). You have to destroy individual identity and ALL differences—esp. male/female—to destroy the Natural Family which is the ONLY way to create individualism in REALITY-—which gives children COMMON SENSE-—understanding of male/female/love/trust-—all CORRECT emotions and ROLE MODELS-—which ALL CHILDREN NEED OF BOTH SEXES SO THEY CAN FIT IN and figure our REALITY. (Have Common Sense).

Now—abused, unloved children are warped, destroyed (if they do not find God)-—but in normal homes, they will be just fine-—have a LOT OF COMMON SENSE (understand Truth) and aren’t easily controlled or manipulated with lies.

Research the mind of the Marxist utopian-—who has to control ALL thoughts and desires of children-—program them-—like robots-—removed from REAL LIFE situations-—so they can be totally warped and be drones for the State (happy slaves).

“Education should aim at destroying free will so that after pupils are thus schooled they will be incapable throughout the rest of their lives of thinking or acting otherwise than as their school masters would have wished ... The social psychologist of the future will have a number of classes of school children on whom they will try different methods of producing an unshakable conviction that snow is black. When the technique has been perfected, every government that has been in charge of education for more than one generation will be able to control its subjects securely without the need of armies or policemen.”

Johann Gottlieb Fichte
(1762-1814) German philosopher, psychologist, considered the father of German nationalism

Talk to a Progressive/Liberal/socialist lately? They have sick, rotted minds and no ability for Reason and Logic. The aspect (Reason) which makes them above animal and in God’s image is GONE. It is intentionally removed to create that evil mind-—empty of Truth-—brainwashed from early childhood.

Yes. I go to a Toastmasters that is 100% lib-commie. My speeches always preach the Gospel. My first speech had many technical merits, but they were not brought up. The evaluation was all negative, and Toastmasters evaluations are supposed to at least mention some positives.

Long story short: others speeches exhorting people to go to the San Francisco “pride” parade is extolled as excellent. I kept taking steps backwards in my speeches because people’s takes on issues are totally dominated by a pre-supposition that the anti-Christ, left-loon position is correct prima facie.

During my last speech, I endeavored to use solid logic to convince the audience that there is such a thing as absolute truth, that either one and only one of the major belief systems of the world is correct, or they are all wrong. After that speech, one of the members told the group that all the world’s religions are the same. It was as if my iron-clad logic was not even heard. No argument needed to be put forth.

They speak a different language. The topic of the Greek bailouts came up. One member said, “Greeks are people too!” I felt like saying, “German taxpayers are people too!” But I’ve learned that logic and reason are just not tools in their mental toolboxes. Touchy-feely is beautiful and correct. Logic and reason are racist and bigoted.

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