Child Advocate Says Same-Sex Marriage Ruling Has ‘Victimized’ a Generation
Ten years ago, the Supreme Court forced same-sex “marriage” on the United States, overturning the laws of over 30 states, not to mention thousands of years of cultural consensus. At the time, many predicted what this would mean, especially for the rights and wellbeing of children. I asked children-rights advocate Katy Faust, founder of Them Before Us to reflect on the legacy of Obergfell v. Hodges.
In reaction to the recent National Religious Broadcasters conference, left-leaning Religious News Service published, “Abortion fight won, conservative Christians mimic Dobbs tactics to go after same-sex marriage.” The article’s reporter, Jack Jenkins, attended the massive, largely evangelical event in Dallas and surmised that concerted efforts are underway to test the Supreme Court’s commitment to the legalization of same-sex “marriage:” “You could hear more than a few panel discussions and hallway conversations repeatedly circle back to the same topic. . .” Crediting these Christian voices with helping “to engineer the demise of Roe v. Wade,” Jenkins highlighted “the growing list of efforts to overturn Obergefell cropping up across the country.”
Jenkins interviewed Liberty Counsel founder Matthew Staver, who, in 2015, represented Kentucky county clerk Kim Davis, jailed for refusing to grant marriage licenses to gay couples after the Supreme Court’s Obergefell v. Hodges decision, which legalized same-sex “marriage.”
He also quoted me. I didn’t know Jack Jenkins and (wrongly) assumed Religion News Service was friendly. Asking for an interview, he followed me around with a tape recorder as I navigated the multi-floor compound, searching among the hundreds of booths for one of my nine interviews that day. I interrupted my own answers to ask for directions, yet he pieced together what ended up being a pretty accurate summation of my thoughts . . . and plans.
What are those plans? To overturn Obergefell on the grounds that it victimizes children. “We have to fight against it, because five Supreme Court justices do not determine whether or not children deserve, need, or have a right to their own mother and father,” I told him. Because that’s exactly what the SCOTUS decision endangered.
Marketed largely as a matter of adult practicality and equality, same-sex “marriage” was sold as a remedy for inequities in insurance coverage and hospital visitation rights. For it to advance culturally and legally required de-coupling the institution from its historic public purpose, which is the creation and rearing of children. And if kids were brought into the conversation, dozens of hastily compiled “studies” were at the ready to assure the courts that children with two moms or two dads fared “no different” than those raised by their own married mother and father.
But these studies, though widely publicized, were methodologically flawed, employing small sample sizes, utilizing recruited rather than randomly derived participants, and often relying on parental opinion (“gay fathers report”) rather than objective child outcomes. The kids are fine, they assured us.
But they aren’t. The research world quickly shifted its sociological focus away from normalizing same-sex homes to assuring society that minors need transgender treatments, so there’s been little study of same-sex parented kids in the last ten years.
But the proof was always there for those with eyes to see and ears to hear. Namely, that whenever sociologists studied any family form other than same-sex parenting, they agreed that biological parents provide higher levels of investment and protection, that mothers and fathers offer distinct, complementary benefits to child development, and that unrelated adults in the home elevate risks of abuse and neglect (the very reason adoptive parents undergo rigorous screening).
Conveniently, though, none of these findings applied to same-sex households—where a biological parent is always missing from a child’s life, either maternal or paternal love is absent, and an unrelated adult is present 100% of the time. Unsurprisingly, when social science gold standards are employed—such as Paul Sullins’ 2015 study using U.S. National Health Interview Survey data—outcomes show drastically worse academic and emotional outcomes for children in same-sex-headed households.
Yet thanks to Obergefell, the past ten years have legislatively and judicially entrenched mother- or father-absence into our parenthood laws.
In state after state, activists have argued that equality requires making parenthood gender-neutral and elevating “social parents” (unrelated adults in the home who have not undergone background checks). Some states have erased fathers from birth certificates to accommodate “two moms” and vice versa. Activists have insisted on requiring insurance to fund the creation of fatherless and motherless children when two men want IVF and surrogacy services. Biology and adoption are bypassed in favor of “intent-based” parenthood. Giving same-sex couples equal access to the marital “constellation of benefits” denied children equal access to their mother and father.
The worst part is this wasn’t a surprise. Seventeen countries had legalized same-sex “marriage” before the U.S. did, and 20 more have done it since. Following marriage redefinition, exactly zero have reinforced the right that children have to their biological mother and father. It’s clear that every country has a choice. They can either advance so-called “gay rights,” or they can protect actual child rights. A just society will side with the kids.
So yes, Jack Jenkins. We are gunning for same-sex “marriage.” When will that happen? I don’t know. But every year it stands as the law of the land is another year children are victimized. That’s unacceptable to me and should be to you as well.
Photo Courtesy: ©Getty Images/Valerii Evlakhov
Published Date: April 11, 2025
John Stonestreet is President of the Colson Center for Christian Worldview, and radio host of BreakPoint, a daily national radio program providing thought-provoking commentaries on current events and life issues from a biblical worldview. John holds degrees from Trinity Evangelical Divinity School (IL) and Bryan College (TN), and is the co-author of Making Sense of Your World: A Biblical Worldview.
The views expressed in this commentary do not necessarily reflect those of CrosswalkHeadlines.
BreakPoint is a program of the Colson Center for Christian Worldview. BreakPoint commentaries offer incisive content people can't find anywhere else; content that cuts through the fog of relativism and the news cycle with truth and compassion. Founded by Chuck Colson (1931 – 2012) in 1991 as a daily radio broadcast, BreakPoint provides a Christian perspective on today's news and trends. Today, you can get it in written and a variety of audio formats: on the web, the radio, or your favorite podcast app on the go.
