U. S. passport applications will no longer ask for “mother” and “father.” Instead, they will ask for “parent one” and “parent two.” From the Washington Post:
Goodbye, Mom and Dad. Hello, Parent One and Parent Two.
The State Department has decided to make U.S. passport application forms “gender neutral” by removing references to mother and father, officials said, in favor of language that describes one’s parentage somewhat less tenderly.
The change is “in recognition of different types of families,” according to a statement issued just before Christmas that drew widespread attention Friday after a Fox News report.
The announcement of the change was buried at the end of a Dec. 22 news release, titled “Consular Report of Birth Abroad Certificate Improvements,” that highlighted unrelated security changes.
The new policy is a win for gay rights groups, a vocal and financially generous Democratic voting bloc that has pushed for the change since Barack Obama began his presidential transition in late 2008. The decision follows last month’s vote to end the military’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy, which gay leaders consider one of their biggest victories in years.
First of all, every human being does, in fact, have a female mother and a male father, whether they are married to each other or not. Since citizenship is established by the place of biological birth, surely “father” and “mother” is relevant on a passport. But beyond that, what do we learn from this “victory” about the agenda of gay rights groups?
UPDATE: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has ordered that “mother” and “father” be retained along with the new wording. The forms will call for “mother or parent 1” and “father or parent 2.”
