Despite Ignorant Beliefs, it is Alright for a Gay Couple to Raise a Child In the small town that I grew up in just outside of Boston Massachusetts everything thing seemed normal, mothers were at home raising their children, taking them to soccer games and little league, while fathers went off to work every morning only to return home to have dinner with the family. It seemed almost all families were like the Cleaver family.In August of 1986, a new family, the Buchanan’s, moved into the Morrill’s, right next door to my parents. New families in the neighborhood usually meant new kids to play kickball with and flashlight tag with. To my dismay, there was only one new kid in the neighborhood joining us his name was Earl. Earl was cool, he liked baseball cards, swimming, riding bikes, and causing trouble, all the same things that I liked. But the adults found Earl to be strange, making comments and funny faces as we passed. Some parents did not even allow their children to play with him. As an eight year old nothing seems visibly wrong with him. Out of curiosity I asked my mother what was wrong with Earl. At first she played as though she did not know what I was talking about, until it became a daily question that I needed to know the answer to. Then my mother told me, Earl’s parents were different, he did not have a mom and a dad, he had two fathers, and she told me that Earl’s parents were gay. I didn’t care because I didn’t even know what “gay” meant.A few weeks later while sleeping over Earl’s house, I learned the meaning of the word gay. I saw Rick, Earl’s Dad kiss Mike, his friend goodbye as he left to go to work. “Man your Dad just kissed Mike”, I said. “I know” Earl began to explain, “both of them are my dads.” In an eight year olds’ terms said that he has a dad and a daddy, unlike a mom and a daddy. ...
