No Mama, No Papa
By Jon Christian Ryter
January 12, 2011
NewsWithViews.com
In yet another politically-correct, social progressive sleight-of-hand, the Obama State Department has surreptitously degenderized parenthood in the United States. The terms "Father" and "Mother" have been removed from U.S. passport applications and replaced with gender-neutral terminology, a State Department spokeswoman said when the bureaucracy announced the change on Friday, Jan. 7, 2011. Brenda Sprague, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Passport Services issued the statement after the media inquired about a new policy statement on the State Department's website.
The statement, buried at the end of a Dec. 22, 2010 State Dept. news release entitled "Consular Report of Birth Abroad Certificate Improvements," said: "These improvements are being made to provide a gender neutral description of a child's parents and in recognition of different types of families." In the old passport application, the form asks for the "Father's Place of Birth" and the "Mother's Place of Birth." The purpose of tagging the blurb on the politically correct terminology switch into a news report that just about no one was ever going to read was to comply with federal law which required the posting while trying hard to keep it under the public radar screen since Resident Barack Obama is now pretending he's a political moderate in a changing political landscape. If he had managed to keep the terminology change in the US passport from the 99+% of the American people who are heterosexual (statistics from the 2000 US Census), Obama could have scored points from the less than 1% of the population that admits to being homosexual—particularly after his congressional repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell."
The new forms, which cannot yet be accessed by the public, will be available online on Feb. 1, 2011. Instead of the old verbiage, the form will ask for "Parent One's Place of Birth" and "Parent Two's Place of Birth" since "daddy" may actually be a "mommy" and "mommy" may actually be a "daddy." The Washington Post called the new policy a win for gay rights groups which were financially generous to Democrats in the Election of 2008.
It is still unclear whether similar changes will be forthcoming in all federal documents. Very likely that will depend on two things: public outcry and the adamance of Republicans to restore the passport status quo. An announcement made by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in 2009 suggests the passport terminology change is likely the opening salvo fired across the bow of the USS United States that will lead to a lethal barrage aimed at legalizing homosexual marriage by regulation. Clinton announced that "partners" of homosexual American diplomats will be eligible for spousal benefits.
If you recall, in June, 2000 Hillary Clinton became the first wife of a sitting president to march in a Gay Pride parade. In a speech she made in June, 2010, Clinton said "...the United States is elevating the [gay rights] dialogue with other governments, and conducting public diplomacy to protect the rights of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender persons."
Sprague said, "The words in the old form were mother and father. They are now 'parent one' and 'parent two.'" She told the media that the decision by the Obama State Department to change the language was not an act of "political correctness"—although the change was lobbied hard by the gay rights group, Family Equality Council, and they were quick to issue a statement when the announcement was made.
Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council blasted the Obama-Clinton policy as a reflection of "...the topsy-turvy world of leftwing policial correctness." Perkins continued, adding that only in the world of smoke and mirrors "...is it considered an improvement for a birth-related document to provide less information about the circumstances of that birth. This is clearly designed to advance the cause of same-sex marriage and homosexual parenting without statutory authority." Perkins added that this policy decision "...violates the spirit, if not the letter, of the Defense of Marriage Act," (the federal law that defines marriage as a union between one man and one woman).
Rosemary Macray of the State Department of Consular Affairs which issued to Consular Report of Birth Abroad Certificate Improvements," shrugged off allegations of leftwing political correctness by Perkins and others and described the terminology implant as nothing more than an "...unremarkable tweak." Nothing could be farther from the truth. Macray dismissed the terminology change by suggesting the only thing the public is concerned about is not the legitimizing of homosexuality, but the cost to transition the forms. "It's not going to really involve any expense to taxpayers," she said, ending her statement.
"Changing the term mother and father to the more global term of parent," Jennifer Chrisler, Executive Director of the Family Equality Council told Fox News, "allows many different types of families to be able to go and apply for a passport for their child without feeling like the government doesn't recognize their family. Our government needs to recognize that the family structure is changing. The best thing that we can do is support people who are raising kids in loving, stable families."
Chrisler's world view "reality" is warped by the prism of homosexuality. With the tons of gay rights advocacy—funded by billions of dollars of taxpayer money—and the efforts by social progressive educators in the taxpayer-funded public school system promoting homosexual sex as a normal and acceptable lifestyle, as well as an intelligent alternative to abortion, Chrisler appears to be pretending that the statistics which affirm that less than 1% of the population is homosexual or lesbian are fantasies of the homophobic right when, in fact, the numbers come from the 2000 US Census.
The question was inserted by the Clinton Administration's Commerce Department on the belief the statistics would verify what the left has been touting for years: that somewhere between 10% to 20% of the American population is gay. When the stastistics verified what Christian groups had been saying for decades—that the homosexual-lesbian population in the United States was only around one half of one percent—the unsupported claims of the purveyors of perniciousness notwithstanding, the media chose to ignore the "hard prove" on just how many people actually were homosexuals or lesbians.Jon Christian Ryter is the pseudonym of a former newspaper reporter with the Parkersburg, WV Sentinel. He authored a syndicated newspaper column, Answers From The Bible, from the mid-1970s until 1985. Answers From The Bible was read weekly in many suburban markets in the United States.
Today, Jon is an advertising executive with the Washington Times. His website, www.jonchristianryter.com has helped him establish a network of mid-to senior-level Washington insiders who now provide him with a steady stream of material for use both in his books and in the investigative reports that are found on his website.
E-Mail: BAFFauthor@aol.com
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