Re: Joann Pantages Compass (July 22):
So marriage is only supposed to be about the heterosexual production and protection of children? Lots of infertile and too-old-to-procreate heterosexual couples benefit from the wedded state. Local same-sex couples together adopt and raise disabled kids and siblings who are older, split up and in foster care. How can any truly moral person desire to remove these wonderful parents from the small adoption pool seeking to care for "the un-adoptable"? In current American society, allowing their parents to marry would add more stability and protection to these children's lives, not less.
Two hundred years ago, the average American woman had seven children, no access to birth control, virtually no career opportunities and no way out of an abusive marriage. A life of dreariness and drudgery. Fortunately for me, marriage has "devolved" since then! Would a world without marriage be a horrible calamity? Who knows. I do know that this baby boomer would rather be an unmarried mother in Sweden than a married one in Afghanistan!
— Anne Terry
Anchorage