In a similar vein, I worry when I hear people crusading in the name of their kids. The most explosive social issues in recent years, such as abortion, pornography and busing, have been debated according to their impact on kids- or at least what people claim will be their impact on kids. "I can handle pornography myself," you'll hear the parent say, "but I don't want my kid exposed to it." That's the voice of someone who's about to attack somebody else's freedom.
People have persecuted homosexuals for eons in the name of God and kids. Homosexuals, it's claimed, are vampires who replenish their ranks by preying on youth. "We have to protect our children!" is the cry. But homosexuals are our children, and we should treat them so; as adults they deserve the full respect given heterosexuals. I have my own fears and insecurities about sex, but I don't think it's my right to impose them on the world, or to hide things from my children; I have too much respect for them to do so. My duty to them is to love them and to help them interpret the world so that they will be able to make free choices and act on them. I worry a great deal about my children, but the best medicine for those worries is in their strength and independence, not in their ignorance.
—Bill Russell, from his 1979 memoir SECOND WIND.
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