In last year’s US presidential election, Republican VP candidate Paul Ryan was something of a poster boy for Catholic politicians in favour with the bishops and Catholic orthodoxy. That makes it all the more significant for queer Catholics, that he has now reversed his opposition to gay adoption, and now “regrets” his 1999 vote against a proposal to permit gay adoption in DC. A story at Think Progress has this quote:
RYAN: Adoption, I’d vote differently these days. That was I think a vote I took in my first term, 1999 or 2000. I do believe that if there are children who are orphans who do not have a loving person or couple I think if a person wants to love and raise a child they ought to be able to do that. Period. I would vote that way. I do believe marriage is between a man and a woman, we just respectfully disagree on that issue.
TP notes that support for adoption while remaining opposed to equal marriage is odd, because one of the main arguments trotted out in opposition to same - sex marriage laws is that they somehow infringe on the rights of the child to a mother and a father. That criticism makes sense in terms of Catholic bishops’ (andf other) rhetoric, but in the real world, Ryan’s position is internally consistent - and makes better sense than the bishops’ muddled reasoning. The point is that questions of “the best interests of the child” cannot be settled absolutely by reference to abstract rules, but should always take into account the particular interests of particular children. Ryan’s point is that in cases of children needing adoption, denying them the love of potential gay parents may be denying them the love of any parents at all, which in no way furthers any theoretical “right” to two opposite sex parents.
Liberals and progressive Catholics, like many child welfare and adoption professionals, have been making these arguments for years, but it seems the bishops have paid no attention to reason, preferring to be ruled by the Vatican rule books. Perhaps this little bit of sanity from one of their beloved, orthodox and Republican Catholic favourites will penetrate a little further into episcopal skulls than previous arguments.
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Related articles
- Polling Confirms: British Catholics Support Gay Marriage (Bishops Out of Touch) (queeringthechurch.com)
- Cardinal Dolan’s Easter Statement About Catholic Love for Gays: Adjusting Rhetoric to Reality (bilgrimage.blogspot.com)
- Church Hypocrisy Over Colombian Marriage Equality. (queeringthechurch.com)
- French Marriage and Family Equality By the Summer? (queeringthechurch.com)
- Vatican Spokesman Accepts Legal Recognition of Same - Sex Unions. (queeringthechurch.com)
- Opinion: Allowing gay adoption in Puerto Rico is not only right, it is inevitable (nbclatino.com)
- French Senate Gives Final Approval to Gay Marriage and Adoption (towleroad.com)
