The article Gay Marriage, Same-sex Parenting, and America’s Children, was written in 2005 by Meeza & Rauch and is found in the Marriage and Child Wellbeing Journal, volume 15, issue 2. The key concept of this reflective treatise is an explicit analysis of same sex marriage and parenting in order to establish possible reasons for their increasing number in the modern society and how the same affect America’s children as asserted by Meeza and Rauch.
This article is a research on same-sex marriage parenting and how the same affect children in such marriages. Reflectively, the authors adopted quantitative research majoring in snow balling to randomly factor in responses from subjects of the study. In addition, qualitative data analysis method was used to draw inferences.
From the article, the authors assert that nearly all societies seem to have more opponent of same sex parenting than proponents. Specifically, religion based opposition have constantly and openly gang up against this practice but unfortunately, seem to be losing the battle.
Since ancient time, same sex union has always existed in the form of ritualized informal engagement with no parenting role attached to it. Although not federally recognized, gay/lesbian marriage can be done in the states of Iowa, New Hampshire, Connecticut, Vermont and Massachusetts. This article opine that same sex marriage parenting often affect children negatively as these children are subjected to prejudice and discrimination among peers (Meezan & Rauch, 2005).
This in turn interferes with their physical, psychological, and social development. However, the proponents of this type of union are drawn from civil unions, domestic right groups and registered informal societies who extends their hand in support for this highly criticized union.
In conclusion, the authors assert that marriage, irrespective of the gender of its party, is a social role which when freely accepted, is a mechanism for liberalizing parenting especially when the same is practiced within the limits of the law. The three principles of equal rights, respect, and need for complete acceptance as part of the society may make life bearable for children in this union.
However, on religious and social norms ground, the same paints moral decay, disrespect of religion, and threaten moral standards expected of their children (Meezan & Rauch, 2005).
From the gathered statistics on the level of acceptance or rejection in the United States, the findings reveal that children in same-sex marriages are often subjected to prejudice besides struggling to fit among the religious population comprising of the conservatives vehemently antagonizes acceptance of their parents and themselves. These findings were supported by results from those randomly interviewed comprising of a sample space of 1000.
Reflectively, this article covers the aspect of family acceptance as the building block of the society. The article reveals the essence of religion and norms on social, psychological, and physical development as part of general acceptance. This article same reflection family as a building block of the society as asserted by Macionis in his 13th edition of the book SOC 100: Sociology.
This article is different from other non scholarly article in the essence of qualitative research. Besides, its conclusions are drawn from findings that are systematically collected and scientifically analyzed. Besides, it presents researched recommendations based on the factual findings. However, it shares the same reflective approach towards understanding specific phenomena just like in magazines and newspapers.
Reference
Meezan, W., & Rauch, J. (2005). Gay Marriage, Same-sex Parenting, and America’s Children. Marriage and Child Wellbeing, 15(2), p. 97-116.