Gay Marriage in the Eyes of Children

In this video, children ages 5-13 are exposed to videos of two gay couples getting engaged.  Most children are surprised and even shocked when they first discover that a man is proposing to another man.  When asked their opinions however, most children were perfectly fine with same sex couples.  One boy simply put it "they're gay, but that's okay".  Some of the kids did not even feel the need to address that a man was proposing to another man, but just wished someone would propose to them like that.  The consensus among the majority of the children said the video made them happy and did not see anything wrong with gay marriage.  Their lack of understanding did not come from members of the same sex falling in love.  What they did not understand is the discrimination against gays in the United States as well as other parts of the world.  For the majority, this issue is the essentially the same as the issue of race that America resolved years ago.

This video gave me hope for the future as these kids are members of the next generation that will run America.  Although the kids seemed to think gay marriage was a little weird at first, they quickly supported it.  Only one of the children remained opposed to the concept of homosexuality, but this young boy did not have a reason why.  The children supporting gay marriage however, had several sensible reasons to support their position.  The rest of the children saw homosexuality being the same issue as race: an issue of equality.  Those of darker skin had less rights than caucasians just as homosexuals are being denied the right of marriage in many states.  For nearly all the children, equality between gay and straight people just made sense.  Many times children have been the messengers of simple truths and I believe that is true in this case.  In the eyes of America's future, that gay marriage should be legalized is a simple truth.