Robert Oscar Lopez has written a very
heart-felt account of being
raised by two mothers and no father and the consequences of this in his
life.

Obviously the account of one person is
purely anecdotal and some of the unfortunate twists and turns that occurred in
his life would not have happened to others who were raised by two mothers, and
would have happened to some who were raised by a mother and a
father.

However, certain parts of his life-story are
an inherent part of being raised by two members of the same sex, especially the
fact that the manner in which men and women interact with each another will not
be modelled in front of you the same way it would be if you were raised by a
mother and a father.

Here is how Lopez puts it in his article: “My peers learned all the unwritten rules of decorum and body language
in their homes; they understood what was appropriate to say in certain settings
and what wasn’t; they learned both traditionally masculine and traditionally
feminine social mechanisms.

“Even if my peers’ parents were divorced,
and many of them were, they still grew up seeing male and female social models.
They learned, typically, how to be bold and unflinching from male figures and
how to write thank-you cards and be sensitive from female figures. These are
stereotypes, of course, but stereotypes come in handy when you inevitably leave
the safety of your lesbian mom’s trailer and have to work and survive in a world
where everybody thinks in stereotypical terms, even gays.

“I had no male figure at all to follow, and
my mother and her partner were both unlike traditional fathers or traditional
mothers.”

Of course, two mothers (or a single mother
for that matter) could go out of their way to find their children male role
models.

However, all things being equal, wouldn’t it
be better for the role model to be the child’s actual father, and isn’t seeking
out a male role model for a child an acknowledgement that children need a role
model from each of the sexes in their lives?

And isn’t the best way to secure this
through traditional marriage?