And the beat goes on...
Lawmakers: Census Should Include Gay Couples U.S. representatives Tammy Baldwin of Wisconsin, Barney Frank of Massachusetts, and Jared Polis of Colorado along with 48 other congressional members sent a letter to Office of Management and Budget director Peter Orszag asking that the 2010 Census count same-sex married couples rather than altering their status.
Last year, the Bush administration -- citing the Defense of Marriage Act, which prohibits the federal government from recognizing same-sex unions -- announced that lawfully married same-sex couples who marked “married” on their census forms would have their status changed to “unmarried partners” in the final count. Now, congressional members are calling on Orszag to reverse course.
“We are deeply concerned about the implications of this policy for same-sex couples and for the integrity of the Census as a whole and firmly believe the [Census] Bureau’s primary objective should be to collect data and report it, not collect data and alter it,” the members said in their letter.
and
Roberts: Gay Family Values Why minds are changing on same-sex marriage
A young gay couple we know desperately wants a child of their own, so they are scrimping and saving to pay for a surrogate mother. They figure the process will take five years and many thousands of dollars, but they are committed to parenthood.
A lesbian acquaintance is preparing to marry her longtime partner back home in Massachusetts, which has sanctioned gay marriage for years. Her talk about dresses and honeymoons sounds just as excited, and apprehensive, as any other bride we've ever met.
As a dear friend lay dying, her son's boyfriend took on the task of changing her IV tubes. At our grandson's Little League games, one teammate's "two dads" show up regularly and cheer him on. A colleague retired recently to Seattle, where she could baby-sit for her only grandchild, the biological son of her daughter's partner.
Are these families threatening the moral order? Are they diminishing the sanctity of marriage? Are saving money and buying wedding dresses and cheering at Little League games acts of rebellion against established social norms?
Of course not. In fact, they are exactly the opposite. These same-sex couples are sharing and strengthening the "family values" that conservatives profess to defend when they oppose gay marriage - constancy, stability and a belief in the promises they make to each other and their children.
