Mamme di distruzione di massa

William Saletan traccia una rassegna impietosa degli argomenti che i fondamentalisti cristiani vanno sollevando contro le coppie di donne omosessuali che allevano figli, come nel caso clamoroso della figlia del vicepresidente degli Stati Uniti, Mary Cheney, omosessuale in attesa di un figlio che alleverà assieme alla sua compagna («Lesbians of Mass Destruction», Slate, 23 dicembre 2006). Saletan scrive con arguzia e con umorismo – anche se talvolta un po’ nero:

The 30-year search for proof that gay parents are destructive looks a lot like the hunt for WMD [Weapons of Mass Destruction]. The American Psychological Association has compiled abstracts of 67 studies. Some are plainly biased, and only the latest two or three have avoided the methodological flaws of earlier investigations. But after 67 tries, you’d expect the harm of gay parenting to show up somewhere. Yet in study after study, on measure after measure, kids turn out the same. …
Such unwelcome findings haven’t chastened the antigay lobby any more than they’ve chastened the Bush administration. If the direct evidence doesn’t bear you out, look for indirect evidence. So conservatives have developed a subtler argument: On average, children do best when raised by their two married, biological parents.
Let’s take this argument a piece at a time. It’s true that two parents are better than one. It’s also true that married parents are better than unmarried ones. But those aren’t arguments against gay parenthood. They’re arguments for gay marriage. …
For that matter, if you want every child to have the benefit of two parents, you’re picking on the wrong Cheney. Mary’s sister, Liz, just had her fifth kid. All things being equal, Liz’s baby will get one-fifth as much parental attention as Mary’s will get. But nobody complains about that. …
James Dobson, chairman of Focus on the Family, says Cheney’s pregnancy is a bad idea because a father “makes unique contributions to the task of parenting that a mother cannot emulate,” such as “a sense of right and wrong and its consequences.” You must be kidding. Cheney’s partner is a former park ranger. They met while playing collegiate hockey. If they want a night out to catch an NHL game, Grandpa Dick can drop by to read bedtime stories about detainee interrogation.