Talking to My Teenager About Marriage Equality

Now that Nick is a teenager I try to talk to him like an adult. Well not exactly like an adult, but like the intelligent and inquisitive young man he has become. He can talk circles around me when it comes to history and his love of science is probably the real reason I’m now hooked on The Big Bang Theory, but yesterday we ventured into more serious territory. Yesterday we began to talk about Marriage Equality and the cases being heard before the Supreme Court. In all honesty I’m not sure of every detail, but I know that love is love and I also know how simple it was for Paul and I to elope more than 20 years ago at the small little chapel in San Diego, California. So I tried to explain it all to Nick as best I could without getting too emotional because when it comes to Human Rights issues I tend to speak with my heart and end up in tears with him probably wishing he was in his bedroom playing a video game. He asked me a question that was a fair one, especially from a teenager who is far, very far away from considering marriage for himself. He didn’t understand the big deal because isn’t it just a piece of paper, Mom? I tried to explain that yes it is a piece of paper, but it also so much more than that. It is about love and family and children who should live in a country where their parents can be gay or straight and they can all be a family regardless of whether they love a person of the same gender or not. They should live in a place where they can have the same rights as every other person because they deserve those rights. Those couples, those children, those families should not be considered any less than our family just because there are two Moms or two Dads rather than one of each.

Nick just kind of stared at me because he still didn’t really grasp what it all truly meant for so many people and regardless of the examples I tried to give him, it wasn’t reaching him the way I hoped it would. So I eventually looked at him and I said it is simply the right thing to do because we are all human beings and we all deserve the same rights. Then I showed him this photo, which is now the profile picture of several of my friends on Facebook and makes me so proud to know every single one of them. Let’s get this right America. Once and for all.

Marriage Equality

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