Slog
News & ArtsFriday, December 2, 2011
Hetero Every Child Deserves a Mother and a Father
Posted by Dan Savage on Fri, Dec 2, 2011 at 6:29 AM
Laura Gonzalez was happy to be back at work after three weeks away that included a stay at a battered women's shelter. She saw it as the beginning of a new life. One without her husband and the father of her four children, she told co-workers. She wasn't going back to him this time, she said, and left for home. Less than an hour later, her 24-year-old husband, Jose Avila, launched a brutal final assault. First he shot his wife three times. Then, he began shooting the children. Avila's final act was to kill himself. Two of the children died at a hospital Thursday, a day after their two siblings were killed in the shooting that rattled the small southeast Texas town of Bay City. Their mother is hospitalized in critical condition.
Children deserve fit, loving, sane, stable, non-abusive, non-homicidal parents. There are unfit gay parents out there—as we've recently seen in Seattle, as we may be the case in Connecticut—just as there are unfit opposite-sex parents.
2
Jesus Fucking Christ. The worst part is that if the mother lives, she's probably going to wish she hadn't.
3
Yes, there are unfit parent of all sorts. What is the point of this feature, then? Simply to wallow in horror? Is there a need for Dan Savage to allow Slog readers do that? Aren't there all sorts of places on the internet to go and feel anger and contempt for the scum of the world? Such as true crime websites or mugshot websites, etc.? Why do it here?
6
#3: exactly what I was thinking. "Every Child" only worked (if it ever really did) when it was demonstrating that not all opposite-sex parents are fit parents. This post shows...what? If the success of "It's Time" has taught Americans anything, surely it's that a positive message works better than a negative one. It's time to change this feature from chronicling the horrors that some people inflict on their kids to highlighting the stories of great same-sex parents.
7
@3 it's a valid post because it points out the irony of how the so called family values police are so gung ho to protect the sanctity of marriage yet allow things like this to occur in their own backyard.
The sanctity of marriage argument that it protects children would have at least some semblance of validity if it actually did protect kids. As Dan, and others, point out time and time again it is not only a weak argument, it's just patently false.
The sanctity of marriage argument that it protects children would have at least some semblance of validity if it actually did protect kids. As Dan, and others, point out time and time again it is not only a weak argument, it's just patently false.
8
But what about the transsexual neanderthal parents, huh? Bigot. You always leave them out. Or call them Neandies.
10
@9 - The general Slogosphere might get it, but until adoption policies across the nation are changed, it's clear that many in the U.S. DON'T get it, at all.
Until they do, Dan's gonna make these posts.. to make this point.
Until they do, Dan's gonna make these posts.. to make this point.
11
@6 - Dingo, I agree! Highlight the positives, like Zach Wahls, the guy that spoke during a public forum on House Joint Resolution 6 in the Iowa House of Representatives.
12
Note to violent parents: When the "To-do list" includes:
- Murder Family
- Commit Suicide
Remember to always do the suicide part first.
- Murder Family
- Commit Suicide
Remember to always do the suicide part first.
13
@4 don't blame an entire state for one person's horrific actions. There is nothing magical about even the bluest of states that prevents a homicidal person from acquiring a gun. (And most determined abusers don't need a gun to kill their children and/or spouses. Cars, housefires, bathtubs, kitchen knives and highway overpasses have all been used to do that. )
@12 Here here! I do not understand the need to take others with them.
@12 Here here! I do not understand the need to take others with them.
14
Once again here is a story about the toxic and fatal effects of male aggressive anger and everyone shrugs.
Men get furious when they have their possessions ( wife, kids) taken away from them. There needs to be a way to monitor the response in males when a couple breaks up to see if there is a potential for him to go postal.
Men get furious when they have their possessions ( wife, kids) taken away from them. There needs to be a way to monitor the response in males when a couple breaks up to see if there is a potential for him to go postal.
15
Previously pointed out on Dan's pitbull threads is that most fatal dog bites are from 1.) pitbulls 2.) unaltered males....and that neutering dogs greatly reduced aggression and attacks.....I'm thinking I see a potential solution on reducing domestic violence rates. ;)
17
@14 Seriously?
"There needs to be a way to monitor the response in males when a couple breaks up to see if there is a potential for him to go postal."
Did you intend that to read as generally as it does?
"There needs to be a way to monitor the response in males when a couple breaks up to see if there is a potential for him to go postal."
Did you intend that to read as generally as it does?
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