Forbes slams same-sex 'parent' fields on passport forms
U.S. Rep. Randy Forbes is accusing the State Department of conducting an assault on "traditional American family relationships" by changing how citizens can refer to their parentage on passport applications.
Forbes is upset that passport forms that now require applicants to provide information about their mother and father will change so that applicants are asked to list two people as "mother/father/parent."
The change would allow applicants to list a mother and father, two mothers, or two fathers.
Initially, the State Department announced in December that it was going to nix the titles "mother" and "father" altogether and simply require applicants to provide information for two parents.
When Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton heard about it, she insisted that the designations of mother and father be included, said John Echard, a State Department spokesman.
That led to the new "mother/father/parent" labels, which are set to be used on new applications starting March 1.
"It's a change that relates to today's parents," Echard said.
But Forbes said that change isn't sufficient.
This week he filed a bill, HR635, that would require the forms retain only the "father" and "mother" categories.
The Chesapeake Republican said it will only be a matter of time before the mother and father designation are set aside entirely.
"It's a bridge too far to say we need to do away with our whole nomenclature of mother and father," Forbes said. "I do not believe there is any other country in the world that does that."
His bill would "require all federal agencies, contractors, and government-sponsored enterprises to use the words 'mother' and 'father' when describing parents in all official documents and forms," according to a statement by his office.
"Symbolism is important and this legislation seeks to preserve the sacred relationship mothers and fathers share with their children," Forbes said. "These subtle, but nonetheless significant, changes undermine the traditional American family relationships that have served as the bedrock of our nation since its inception."
James Parrish, executive director of Equality Virginia, a gay rights advocacy group, said he was happy to hear about the passport changes and strongly disagrees with Forbes.
"This passport change is doing nothing more than recognize the families that already exist in this nation," he said.
Source
It must be nice to have a life so perfect that acknowledging someone else's same-sex relationship is a personal threat to you.
U.S. Rep. Randy Forbes is accusing the State Department of conducting an assault on "traditional American family relationships" by changing how citizens can refer to their parentage on passport applications.
Forbes is upset that passport forms that now require applicants to provide information about their mother and father will change so that applicants are asked to list two people as "mother/father/parent."
The change would allow applicants to list a mother and father, two mothers, or two fathers.
Initially, the State Department announced in December that it was going to nix the titles "mother" and "father" altogether and simply require applicants to provide information for two parents.
When Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton heard about it, she insisted that the designations of mother and father be included, said John Echard, a State Department spokesman.
That led to the new "mother/father/parent" labels, which are set to be used on new applications starting March 1.
"It's a change that relates to today's parents," Echard said.
But Forbes said that change isn't sufficient.
This week he filed a bill, HR635, that would require the forms retain only the "father" and "mother" categories.
The Chesapeake Republican said it will only be a matter of time before the mother and father designation are set aside entirely.
"It's a bridge too far to say we need to do away with our whole nomenclature of mother and father," Forbes said. "I do not believe there is any other country in the world that does that."
His bill would "require all federal agencies, contractors, and government-sponsored enterprises to use the words 'mother' and 'father' when describing parents in all official documents and forms," according to a statement by his office.
"Symbolism is important and this legislation seeks to preserve the sacred relationship mothers and fathers share with their children," Forbes said. "These subtle, but nonetheless significant, changes undermine the traditional American family relationships that have served as the bedrock of our nation since its inception."
James Parrish, executive director of Equality Virginia, a gay rights advocacy group, said he was happy to hear about the passport changes and strongly disagrees with Forbes.
"This passport change is doing nothing more than recognize the families that already exist in this nation," he said.
Source
It must be nice to have a life so perfect that acknowledging someone else's same-sex relationship is a personal threat to you.
Translation: BAAWWWWWWWWWWW!
Please strait, cis, Christian, white guys, you're not oppressed, stop pretending to be. It's not as fun or glamorous as you seem to think it is.
Oh, please. I hate how these assholes always talk like in the past everybody had a happily married mom and dad and a golden retriever and a white picket fence. I can't even say that in my own damn family. My maternal great-grandparents were married to other people, then either got divorced or widowed and hooked up without getting married for the next fifty years. My paternal great-grandmother got knocked up on a cruise and gave my grandfather up for adoption. And my paternal grandparents got divorced, my grandmother remarried, her new husband adopted my dad, and that's how I still have two grandpas. Everybody's family is different.
What a shocking concept.
But we're not. "Mother/father/parent" includes mother and father.
His bill would "require all federal agencies, contractors, and government-sponsored enterprises to use the words 'mother' and 'father' when describing parents in all official documents and forms," according to a statement by his office.
So much for Republicans being the party of small government & less needless, nonsensical regulatory bureaucracy.
Is this guy seriously claiming it's undermining families to refer to someone as a "parent" on a form only a few people, who should be obeying privacy laws anyway will see?
:) I like this change! And I hope that the HR635 fails.
Honestly, I don't get why people are taking the "allowing gays to be socially accepted + have the same rights" thing as some kind of personal affront.
But they're totally icky, don't cha know?
I bet this guy also gets mad when telephone recordings ask him to press 2 if he'd like to hear the menus in Spanish.
THIS, THIS, A THOUSAND TIMES THIS
Can we somehow MAKE it tiring so these assholes SHUT THE HELL UP for two fucking minutes?
I just don't have any words for how stupid this is.
Not really.
Hate to break it to you, but that nuclear traditional family BS is outdated. Not only does it exclude same-sex families, but it also excludes people who lived w/ their grandparents.
This is so stupid. "Homosexual parents attacking traditional American family values" aside, this would make it so much easier administratively. So, really, what's the big deal?
MY GOD, MAN!
Edited at 2011-02-14 03:44 pm (UTC)
Oh wait, you wont let us have families. So you shouldn't be allowed to have them either. Oh la~
He's an asshole of the moronic variety, but we've never been able to vote him out - unfortunately, most of our constituents are with him on homophobic crap like this. Virginia is for heterosexual lovers.
I sent Forbes a strongly-worded email via his website telling him to grow up. Wish I'd c&p'd it to post.