For Pete's Sake!

For Pete's Sake!

I had plans tonight to write a short recap of last weeks glorious victory against Oregon, a preview of this week's football game, a political opinion piece on .50 caliber rifles, and why we should all support Chuck Poochigian over Jerry Brown. Unfortunately, you will all have to wait for those posts.

Tonight, I was told to check out the KGO radio archive and listen to Pete Wilson's radio show. Unfortunately, KGO archives its shows only for 24 hours, so I am unable to provide a link. If the particular show I am interested in is podcasted elsewhere, I will give you a link later.

Today, Wilson (not to be confused with former Governor Pete Wilson), started his show with a discussion of Bevan Dufty and Rebecca Goldfader's new bundle of joy, Sidney. Unlike most local media that have congratulated the two coparents on the birth of their daughter, Wilson criticized the two in a bigoted tirade regarding their sexual orientation and marital status.

Best friends for more than 10 years, Dufty and Goldfader are both homosexual. The two plan to live side-by-side in a duplex that they plan to purchase. They intend to raise their daughter, Sidney, together in the duplex.

While it is now common in San Francisco for same-sex couples to raise children together, it is apparently taboo for two opposite-sex individuals that happen to be gay to raise a child together, or so says Wilson. The radio talk show host expressed his outrage that the two would have a child together by calling little Sidney "a potential travesty."

While it is true that the ideal situation for raising a child includes two married parents that both love and care for the child in a stable environment throughout the child's development, such situations are frequently unavailable. For example, gay couples are barred by law from marrying which can lead to partnerships that are less legally binding than a conventional marriage. Further, many children are born to single parent homes or may otherwise lose a parent prematurely. Such arrangements are so commonplace in our society that one hardly gives a second thought to a single parent caring for children. Certainly, these situations do not merit specific discussions on radio talk shows. Frankly, nobody cares when two straight people decide to have a child together and not marry each other.

However, when two gay people of the opposite sex decide to have a child together and not marry, it is apparently an outrageous affront to society. While Wilson unapologetically claims that Goldfader and Dufty's child is being treated as a toy instead of a new human being, he fails to recognize that this child of a popular San Francisco Supervisor and a Nurse Practioner will be extremely well cared for and loved by two parents that have remained close for more than a decade. If only more children could be so lucky!

I won't go so far as other bloggers and call for the resignation of Pete Wilson from KGO radio. He should, however, try to remember that the newborn he claimed could be a "serial killer" is a real human being with a real family who loves her. His comments and reactions were hurtful, not only to Dufty and Goldfader, but to many others in the San Francisco Queer Community.