Re-defining family

In the wake of the retrograde political season for LBGTQ rights in 2004, this statement seems like a step in the right direction for not only securing the basic human rights of same-sex couples, but recognizing and legitimizing the wide range of family structures that exists (and I would argue has always existed) in the United States:

To have our government define as "legitimate families" only those households with couples in conjugal relationships does a tremendous disservice to the many other ways in which people actually construct their families, kinship networks, households, and relationships. For example, who among us seriously will argue that the following kinds of households are less socially, economically, and spiritually worthy?

• Senior citizens living together, serving as each other's caregivers, partners, and/or constructed families
• Adult children living with and caring for their parents
• Grandparents and other family members raising their children's (and/or a relative's) children
• Committed, loving households in which there is more than one conjugal partner
• Blended families
• Single parent households
• Extended families (especially in particular immigrant populations) living under one roof, whose members care for one another
• Queer couples who decide to jointly create and raise a child with another queer person or couple, in two households
• Close friends and siblings who live together in long-term, committed, non-conjugal relationships, serving as each other's primary support and caregivers
• Care-giving and partnership relationships that have been developed to provide support systems to those living with HIV/AIDS

>snip<

Right-wing strategists do not merely oppose same-sex marriage as a stand-alone issue. The entire legal framework of civil rights for all people is under assault by the Right, coded not only in terms of sexuality, but also in terms of race, gender, class, and citizenship status. The Right's anti-LGBT position is only a small part of a much broader conservative agenda of coercive, patriarchal marriage promotion that plays out in any number of civic arenas in a variety of ways -- all of which disproportionately impact poor, immigrant, and people-of-color communities. The purpose is not only to enforce narrow, heterosexist definitions of marriage and coerce conformity, but also to slash to the bone governmental funding for a wide array of family programs, including childcare, healthcare and reproductive services, and nutrition, and transfer responsibility for financial survival to families themselves.

Re-embedding the Right's anti-LGBTQ bigotry in the context of its opposition to civil rights and basic government services may help hasten the changes in public opinion that simple demographics have started.