(no subject)

[lavendersparkle]

Another thing that gets me down at pro-life events is that they are dominated by conservative Catholics. I've nothing against conservative Catholics, but spending a whole evening as a minority of one is tiring. Sometimes I get the urge to just leave them to it and let pro-life soc become a subgroup of Fisher House where people can preach to the choir about the evils of contraception and gay adoption. Over dinner there was an animated discussion about This case of some grandparents who were refused custody because they were 'too old' and whose grandchildren were instead adopted by a gay couple. Now, I think that, if the details of the story are correct, it shows the great problem of social services not taking into account that keeping children within their extended family or with friends of their family, is usually better than adoption by strangers. This story would be just as much a travesty if the kids had been adopted by the Brady Bunch. However, my comrades in the cause of life concentrated on the gay aspect and the 'PC gone mad' aspect of allowing two men to adopt.

I know queer pro-lifers. I know people who were raised by queer parents. I want them in our pro-life soc tent. We're not going to change any minds if pro-life soc is the place you go to let off steam agreeing with the homophobic story you read in the Daily Mail. Why don't they just start a homophobic soc and let me get on with winning people around to pro-life feminism.

Comments

[liv]

I have to admit I'd be a lot more willing to call myself pro-life if there were less homophobic, misogynist, Christianist baggage attached. Of course, if I thought stopping abortion was the most important social issue on the planet I'd have to put up with whatever fellow-travellers I could get, but as it is it's low enough priority for me that I'm prepared to be cowardly about it.

[cathedral-life.livejournal.com]

I agree (obviously). I hate the way that there's an assumption that if you're queer, you'll be pro-choice eg. on feminist demonstrations.

[(Anonymous)]

Do you have Jewish blood? If you don't then I'm afraid you'll never be truly Jewish! Sorry!

[atreic.livejournal.com]

it shows the great problem of social services not taking into account that keeping children within their extended family or with friends of their family, is usually better than adoption by strangers

Hmm. Plural of anecdote is not data, but I have worries about the thinking behind this comment. Most of my interactions with social services has shown them to be rather desperate to send children back to their extended family rather than keep them with foster carers or have them adopted. Their extended family often have many of the problems of their parents, and so they can be sent back to a life of violence and deprivation which can end with them returning to foster care in a few years anyway.

I know absolutely nothing about the case you mention, and I know that some of the best parents can have children wrestling with the problems of drug addiction or mental health problems, but I wouldn't be at all surprised if the grandparent's perceived unfitness to be primary carers has very little to do with their age.

As shown elsewhere in the thread, an obsession with blood links can be unhelpful.

[ttcf.livejournal.com]

This drives me (a left-leaning, feminist, atheist pro-lifer) nuts as well. Not only do I think they're wrong about contraception, gay rights, etc., but I think they're driving people away as well. As I wrote to the American Life League recently (after this incident (http://all.org/article.php?id=11754)), people like them make it harder for the rest of us to convince people that being pro-life can be a rational, compassionate position.