"I'm Totally Going to Marry a Dude. Girls Stink."

The boys' preschool teacher was very good about teaching kids very early on that families can look different.  Indeed, that families should look different.  She asked the kids how many people it took to make a family.  Most of the kids counted the members of their family on their fingers and said that number.  But their teacher said it actually only took two people to make a family.  And that could be a number of different combinations:  mother and child, father and child, man and woman, man and man, woman and woman, etc.  There was nothing that was strange about any of those possibilities.  And if your family had more than two people, well good for you.  A family is a family.  The end.  No right, no wrong.  No natural, no unnatural.  Just people who love each other and wish to make a life together. How I wish Mrs. A. could've been the teacher to the nation for the past, oh, seventy years.

The boys had a gay family in their preschool class and I wanted to re-iterate what their teacher said so I was talking to them about different families and I mentioned that B, in their class, had two moms.  D looked puzzled and said, "B has two moms?"  

"Yep," I replied, somewhat frightened of what was coming next.

"Whoa.  She. Must. Get. Yelled. At. A. LOT."  That was his takeaway.  

Although it doesn't reflect positively on me, as their primary caretaker, I still loved it.  Having two moms was not an oddity but more of a concern because, in his experience, moms yell more than dads.  I honestly believe my kids' generation will be the last to live in a United States where citizens do not have equal rights.  At least that's my most sincere hope.  

I hate that, with his history-making statement last night, the President immediately made the upcoming election about same-sex marriage.  And that is what it will be about.  But I agree with what Charles Blow wrote in the NY Times:

"Today, we are an inch taller as a nation. Today, we are a mile closer to the ideals described in the Declaration of Independence. Today, we have been transported light-years beyond where many ever thought we would be."

Amen.

We were watching the news months back when New York passed their same-sex marriage bill.  The boys had questions about why people were crying and laughing and celebrating.  When I told them it was because, that now, in that state, people could marry whomever they wanted, man or woman.  They both then voiced their support for equal rights: "We're totally going to marry dudes.  Girls stink."  Should the sentiment endure another 20 or 30 years, I hope they can.

I can't promise you boys a lot in this world, but I can promise you that we will love you no matter whom you love.  The end.