Follow-up: Brad and Angelina, Shrek and Fiona

One thing I want to start doing on the blog is following up on earlier pieces when the same or related issues come up later, as is often the case. For example, you may recall my piece on why marriage matters to kids, "If It's Good Enough for Brad and Angelina...".

In that post, I discussed the famous couple's initial commitment not to marry until marriage is legal for everyone, which they apparently (and understandably) considered revisiting when their kids expressed an interest in having married parents. I explained the intangibles, the feeling and the status conferred by the word "marriage," and how that impacts children, regardless of who their parents are.

Photo by Eric Ryan/ Getty Images

The subject has come up again in the media because the Jolie-Pitt brood have now likened their parents to Shrek and Fiona, who got married in the movies. If Shrek and Fiona can do it, why can't they? Take a glance at the article for more from Angelina Jolie on the kids' perspective about "happily ever after."

It's just another reminder of how our children are socialized to view marriage and the resulting psychological and emotional importance of that union in their minds. From relatives to friends to movie characters, kids are surrounded by evidence of this mystical status, this lens through which so many view their families.

My point?  It's a simple chain of thought. Marriage matters to kids. Gay parents will continue to have kids no matter what the marriage laws are.  There is no legal justification for treating families headed by gay parents any differently than those headed by straight parents.

Not only that, but it's also morally wrong to draw such distinctions. These kids cannot control who their parents are and they deserve the best just like any other kids. Period. Besides, what the world needs is more love and more unity, not more contempt and division.

Photo from loveisinthedetails.ca.