Jeb Bush Defends Same-Sex Parents As Examples Of Loving Families
Jeb Bush is a different kind of Republican. The kind of Republican hated by conservative extremists. He believes tax increases should be part of the solution to solving America’s debt issue and he believes in compassionate immigration reform. And during an interview last week with Charlie Rose, Bush actually defended same-sex parents as examples of loving parents Republicans should praise.
While not a personal believer in same-sex marriage, Bush does indeed think that we shouldn’t deny children good loving homes because the adoptive parents are gay. This issue was most recently debated in Virginia, where Republican lawmakers passed a bill allowing adoption agencies to deny gay couples the right to adopt on religious grounds.
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But Jeb Bush thinks this is a mistake because America could use more loving families, even if the parents are same-sex.
”I don’t think people need to be discriminated against because they don’t share my belief on this,” Bush said. “And if people love their children with all their heart and soul and that’s what they do and that’s how they organize their life that should be held up as examples for others to follow because we need it. We desperately need it and that can take all sorts of forms, it doesn’t have to take the one that I think should be sanctioned under the law.”
In other words, if Republicans truly care about family values, they should care about all kinds of families. But lately, it seems Republicans have attacked every kind of family except one with a married heterosexual couple in which the wife stays home and the husband works, which is known as a “traditional” family. Republicans have attacked single parent families, families with two working parents, and families with unmarried parents in addition to same-sex households. But these are unrealistic attacks considering that only 7% of US households constitute the “traditional” families that Republicans claim to support.
Even the number of married couples has dropped dramatically since 1950, dropping to under half of all US households. In other words, not only is the “traditional” family almost extinct in America, traditional marriage is also in decline.
Obviously, Jeb Bush is not going to convince most conservatives to look upon same-sex couples as loving parents who are fit to raise children, but just the fact that he’s willing to defend them is a step in the right direction. There are many children in America who are in desperate need of a loving home. Surely Republicans wouldn’t want these children to grow up in the unstable foster care system when they could be growing up in a stable home with two parents who love and care for them. If Republicans really care about family values, it’s time to start supporting all family structures instead of alienating the majority of the American population. It’s just the right thing to do.
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