Here is a different context for thinking about Leonard Pitts' thoughts on children growing up without a father image, which is not‚ "PC" but I think the right context for us to view the aspects of women having babies without fathers being around to support the child financially and emotionally, etc. Perhaps he will not like the idea I think is in the back of his mind, but it is in the back of a lot of black people's minds ‚Äì listen to Bill Crosby, et al.

In the February, 1963 issue of ONE Magazine, the first public publication to deal with homosexuality, the editor, Don Slater (co-founder of ONE, Inc and the Homosexual Information Center and one of the best‚ "thinkers" on issues of homosexuality) wrote the editorial that discussed the then issue of over population. His thinking was that if people are concerned with too many babies being born, homosexual behavior is a form of natural birth control. And it is time to say that sex acts are not just for procreation, but can be just for pleasure, comfort, etc.

Now today I don't hear much about over population, except of certain religious or racial populations. I hear that the (white) populations in European countries are not staying level and they are being overrun with babies of Muslim households. And there may still be some people, who think that too many young black women are having babies and going on welfare and those babies, without a father's influence will end up criminals, on drugs and in prison. But if anyone is not aware of the facts, in America, the white and black populations are soon to be outnumbered by Asians and Mexicans/Hispanics. See California today.

This brings up Leonard Pitts' thoughts that women should not have babies that will not have the influence and support of a father. If he is thinking of women who have unwanted babies, often because they are too ignorant or lazy to use birth control, such children do start life with a handicap.

That is not the situation with black and white women who have children because they want them and will be good mothers and will have the support of a partner, or family and friends of both sexes. A child needs masculine and feminine influence/images. But the‚ "ideal" household is found less and less in America and in many parts of the world. Certainly when a single mother or father, or same sex partners decide to adopt a child, they have thought about what is involved in raising a child today, financially, emotionally etc.

As I understand it from anthropology, there have been societies in which children are not raised by a mother or a father or a two parent household, but by the whole community. I doubt those children have any more problems than those raised in our households today. In today's world, with the resources on the internet, a cell phone to use to get help and keep in contact, and people taking college classes on computers in their homes, perhaps there will be different ways of dealing with children but I suspect even ivory tower sociologists, psychologists and religious and legal experts all have to admit that the only concern should still be‚ "the best interest of the child."

Resources: The Learning Channel broadcast a program on families with two moms, including video daughters have done. (See <http://tlc.discovery.com/tv/specials/my-life-child/bios/kids_02.html>)

Other resources can be found online at the Gayellow Pages website <http://gayellowpages.com/> such as www.COLAGE.org, for children with homosexual parents; www.PFLAG.org for parents with homosexual children, and local groups for homosexual parents. Also, check out the Homosexual Information Center website at <http://www.tangentgroup.org>

Billy Glover is a writer and gay activist, and one of the founders of the Homosexual Information Center, along with Don Slater, Joe and Jane Hansen, Tony Reyes, Jim Schneider, et al. Websites for parts of ONE and HIC are: www.tangentgroup.org, www.oneinstitute.org.