Rising To The Level Of Interest

Huge news from the Strib, as it finally endorses the rights of fathers – even unmarried fathers – to access to the children they help raise!

For children, it is hard enough when their parents break up. If both adults are engaged with their kids, the situation should not be made worse by shutting one parent out.Last week, the Minnesota Supreme Court reaffirmed the importance of continued parent-child ties. Justices ruled that the former boyfriend of an adoptive mother deserved visitation with daughters he had helped raise.

This is great news!

It’s also baloney.  I changed a few words.  The actual graf in the paper read:

Last week, the Minnesota Supreme Court reaffirmed the importance of continued parent-child ties. Justices ruled that the former lesbian partner of an adoptive mother deserved visitation with daughters she had helped raise.

This issue of parents interfering with their childrens’ other parents’ access to their children – whether as fallout from a divorce or in the aftermath or an out-of-wedlock childbirth – has been an epidemic in our society for over thirty years. 

Don’t get me wrong – if it takes a fashionably-oppressed minority to bring the issue to the editorial page, it’s great news.  It’s just that for every adoptive lesbian co-parent whose parental (or step-parental) rights are being trampled, there are hundreds or thousands of fathers who’ve been dealing with it for generations, now, with fallout that impacts all of society.

3 thoughts on “Rising To The Level Of Interest

  1. Agreed, certainly. That said — and I think you’ll agree — one advance toward sanity shouldn’t have to wait for another one.

    All in all, I think that it’ll be easier for society to handle the issues around broken up same sex partnerships — there’s a lot of broken built-in safeguards for fathers (the notion that kids’ rights to have a relationship with their fathers after a marriage breakup are already there, and therefore don’t need systemic fixing), and fixing those probably won’t happen during yours and my lifetimes.

  2. “This issue of parents interfering with their childrens’ other parents’ access to their children – whether as fallout from a divorce or in the aftermath or an out-of-wedlock childbirth – has been an epidemic in our society for over thirty years. ”

    Tell it to Elian Gonzalez’s dad.

  3. *dials*
    Hi Juan?
    *wah wah wahwah wah*
    Yes, this is Troy. angryclown asked me to tell you something.
    *wah wah, wahwah wahwah wah wah*
    I know, he is demanding at times. Well, anyway, Mitch wrote something about parents, and interfering, and children in this country, and angryclown just wanted you to know about it.
    *wah, wah wah wah*
    I don’t know. He was all “Tell it to Elian Gonzalez’s dad”, so I gave you a ring.
    *wah wah wah wahwah wah wah wah wah wahwah wah*
    Oh. OK. Well…just a sec.

    angryclown? Juan said he could give a rat’s ass. I think.

    That is that what you said, right?
    *wah*
    OK, good.

    Yeah, that’s what he said.

    Alright then. You have a good one, Juan.
    *wah wah wah*
    Bye.
    *click*

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