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Marriage Defined


In the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints we believe that the family is ordained of God. In the Proclamation to the World it says, "Marriage between man and woman is essential to His eternal plan." I grew up in a large family and hope to one day have a large family of my own. However, recently the family has been under attack. Until the last 15 years no civilization has ever considered marriage anything other than the union between a man and a woman. 

In a General Conference talk by Bonnie L. Oscarson, she states, “This (marriage between a man and a woman) is the Lord’s plan for His children, and no amount of public discourse or criticism will change what the Lord has declared. We need to continue to model righteous marriages, seek for that blessing in our lives, and have faith if it is slow in coming. Let us be defenders of marriage as the Lord has ordained it while continuing to show love and compassion for those with differing views.”

Back in 2013 the definition of marriage changed. Marriage now doesn't have to be between a man and woman, it could be the union of two women or two men. Now, many people are confused and afraid to start families. When this law was being voted on to change, Supreme Court Justice, Justice Kennedy, stated that they must focus largely upon how children will be affected by the decisions they will make. I liked that he was concerned about the children, but in the end he was tricked into thinking that the children wouldn’t be affected.  

This week in class we looked at the document that persuaded Justice Kennedy, and many others, to believe that not a single study has found children of lesbian or gay parents to be disadvantaged in any significant respect relative to children of heterosexual parents. This study was issued by the APA in 2012. 

After reading through the study I was honestly shocked. What the document claimed was totally incorrect. Most of the research that was provided had nothing to do with the outcome of children, and almost none had an actual comparison group. A lot of the data was compared to children of single mothers, not heterosexual parents. How could such an important document that changed everything for the world not be looked at closer. 

Here are a few examples of outcomes that were studied:
 Parents reports of values of children
 Parental motives and desires
 Parenting beliefs/division of labor/etc.
 Adult reports of impacts on children

As a class we discussed what outcomes would actually have been helpful in this study. We would have liked to see things like how it affected their mental health, how they interact with others, what types of relationships they build, and how it affected their education. We talked about getting the results of children from all stages of life. The best study are done on people about the age of 24. They are out of the home and can really see what affected their lives. 

After reading this post, I would highly recommend looking at the website linked below. On this website you can see the outcomes for children based on seven different family structures. 



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