Gay Marriage for Young Readers

Thank you to Elizabeth for calling my attention to "KidsPost", a special section of the Washington Post published for young readers. On Wednesday that section featured a lengthy article on the subject of gay marriage written in what no doubt was intended to be fair and balanced terms. I don't know what age group is targeted by KidsPost, but the article interviewed a ten year old boy living happily with his "moms". I suspect the target audience was children of a similar age.

Not surprisingly, the boy doesn't understand the fuss around gay marriage and thinks things are fine at home. I trust he is a good boy in a happy home, but I don't believe that he or any other ten year old has the emotional and intellectual maturity to discern comparative advantages and disadvantages between children in gay and straight marriages. More to the point, if I am right about the age of the target audience, they are equally unprepared to make such distinctions.

A sidebar to the article notes that a number of religions and social movements oppose gay marriage, and that others support gay marriage. This, I suppose, is intended to provide perspective to the "balanced report" on the subject. All very good for the kids, but for one missing detail. If there is to be balance, where is the interview with a child whose experience in a gay family is not ideal? Obviously, such reporting would not make good copy for young readers, and would be politically incorrect to boot.

That the Post cannot present a truly balanced discussion of a controversial subject in a report intended for young readers because the requirements of such balance are beyond the maturity of those readers is reason enough not have broached the subject in KidsPost in the first place. It also was reason enough for Elizabeth to cancel her subscription.