While the acceptance of same-sex marriage is beyond what many politicians’ and plenty of average dull normals would deem as morally OK, I was pleasantly surprised to see that this stuff can be addressed with young children. Leave it to a ten year-old to take the moral high ground and see same-sex marriage as simply a matter of respecting human rights. Period.
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Hit the road, Ken. |
Back in December, the local Amnesty International group held an essay and art context to celebrate International Human Rights Day. I helped judge the entries from Greendale Elementary. After picking winners in each category, my Amnesty colleague showed me an entry from a fifth grade girl. It was a large maquette filled with Barbies holding signs advocating for equal rights. There was the right not to be discriminated against because of colour (that was a Black Barbie holding up the sign, and she basically looked a lot like the white Barbie, including the ridiculously impossible measurements that defy reason), the right to be treated equally as a woman, and – my favourite – two Barbies expressing their right to marry each other. “We have absolute right to marry each other!” read the sign between the lovestruck dolls, a heart with an arrow drawn just below the words. They certainly looked happy. I say good for the youth of today, who seem to have no trouble understanding that when two people love each other and want to marry, they can. It’s a simple as that.
The artist of the Barbie maquette won in the newly-created Outstanding Art category.
Update: The Pope says that gay marriage undermines “the future of humanity itself.” As if I needed another reason not to believe in religion.