“Every child needs a mother…”

That’s what a religious conservative screamed at me once on the radio when I was discussing gay male couples who adopt children—couples like me and the boyfriend. It didn’t matter to the caller that many same-sex couples adopt children that have been abused, abandoned, or neglected by their biological mothers and fathers. (We also adopt children from women who haven’t abused, neglected or abandoned their children; they know they can’t parent and do the deeply loving thing and place their child for adoption at birth.) Every child needs a mother, he kept repeating. It’s a line you hear frequently from opponents of same-sex couples adopting kids. And the line—”every child needs a mother”—pops into my head every time I see a headline like this: “Mother Accused of Throwing Kids Into Bay.”