By Jaime Townsley

I love how the video [referring to the “Yes on Prop 8” right-wing propaganda] says that teaching about same-sex marriage confuses children. Not to put too fine a point on it, but if teaching same-sex marriage confuses your child, then just how dumb is your kid? Of course, the truth is, it doesn’t confuse children at all.

I’m not out to my kids yet, but I am preparing for it. One book I have is called The Family Book by Todd Parr. Each page talks about a different kind of family. Between pages such as, “Some families adopt children” and “Some families are big,” one page says, “Some families have two moms or two dads.”

My kids have read this book several times without really even noticing that page. But last week, my eight-year-old was reading it out loud to her little sister and brother. When she read that page, she paused and said, “How can families have two moms or two dads?”

I said, “Well, two dads or two moms could adopt a baby, or maybe one mom or dad already has kids before they meet the other person.”

She said, “But two moms and two dads can’t marry each other.”

Thankful to be a Canadian, I replied, “Of course they can!”

Her response? Simply, “Oh. I didn’t know that,” and then she went on reading.

It didn’t disturb her. It didn’t confuse her. It just took a simple explanation that two men or two women could fall in love with each other. It was like when she found out broccoli tastes good with cheese—it was just a piece of information that she didn’t know before but knows now.

—Jaime Townsley [deceased 2011]