Jimmy Kimmel Proves That Kids Don’t Really Need You To Explain Same-Sex Marriage To Them
Every single one of them makes more sense than Miranda Devine.
With the US Supreme Court ushering in national marriage equality over the weekend, the issue has dominated the news for the last few days. Though it by no means erases the other difficulties facing LGBT communities, the vast majority of people are rightfully celebrating the news as a huge landmark in the ongoing fight for equality. (You know it’s a big deal when actual members of the New York Police Force are grinding in a Gay Pride parade).
But, because the world is only slightly less terrible than it was before this ruling, there’s also been a predictable influx of distraught politicians and commentators speaking out against the historic move. Jon Stewart challenged this backlash well in his latest show, after being given plenty of opportunity for outrage; a sitting senator even called the decision the “darkest 24 hours in our nation’s history”.
Instead of jumping to that kind of universally offensive nonsense, most of the complaints with the move are the usual fare: the Helen Lovejoy-style concern for children that presumes kids will either be disadvantaged or too confused by such a move. So, quite matter-of-factly, Jimmy Kimmel used his latest vox-pop segment to ask them face-to-face about it. The result: kids are pretty chill about the whole thing.
If those children are any indication of what the future actually holds, things aren’t looking bad. Aside from the kid who just wanted to talk about her broken leg, most seemed to be totally down with the fact if people “want to [get married], they should be able to”. Special shout-outs to the girl planning to be a very practical 30-year-old bride, the boy who already thinks some people get hitched “because they’re pregnant”, and the kid gunning for a pre-nup. Most adults don’t even have that kind of clarity.
It’s also worth nothing that a primary school kid just came up with a better definition of marriage than News Corp columnist and grown woman Miranda Devine. In an article published earlier this year the latter famously claimed marriage “exists to tame the base sexual instincts of men and women, to harness a mother and father to monogamy and the optimal upbringing of their children”. “It is not a vehicle to validate adult romantic interests,” she said. Alternatively, a nine-year-old boy picked randomly on the street argued people might get married “because they love each other and they just feel a connection”.
So, kids should probably just take over now, right?
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Some more proof from this weekend: