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I well remember the stigma of single parenthood back in the 1960s and 1970s. It was still a heavy stigma, and people had little regard or concern for single women raising a child/children. It was still considered to be highly shameful. Women who had the courage to be open single parents without made up stories about being widowed or what have you brought down societal scorn, but it’s thanks to those parents who had such courage that much of that stigma receded, although never completely eradicated. It took many generations to stop the open contempt of children deemed bastards. It really should not be needed to say that fostering judgmental biases which can impact children in the worst way is wrong, but it seems someone needs to inform Tennessee republicans that hanging “bastard” on a child is not at all okay.
A bill filed by a Tennessee Republican aims to make children born through artificial insemination illegitimate.
WMC reported that state House Representative Terry Lynn Weaver is sponsoring HB 1406 to repeal Tennessee current statute, TCA 68-3-306, which declares that children born through artificial insemination are the “legitimate” child of the mother’s husband.
The text of the new bill says it immediately “repeals statute that deems a child born to a married woman as a result of artificial insemination, with consent of the married woman’s husband, to be the legitimate child of the husband and wife.”
Last year, Weaver was one of 53 GOP lawmakers who got involved in a same-sex marriage divorce that dealt with the custody of a child born through artificial insemination. Weaver and the other lawmakers asserted that the lesbian wife of the child’s mother should not be considered a “legitimate” parent under the current statute.
Amazing, isn’t it, what republicans waste their time on. They could be doing good, but no, they find it much more important to fuck over parents and children. :snarl:
Via Raw Story.
What does it even mean to be a “legitimate” child under the law? Is it a custody thing (eg, being “illegitimate” means your parents have to formally apply for custody)?
But funny how little has changed.
Back then it was never a shame for the men. Even today, a woman who has kids from more than one parent is deemed bad, but nobody gives a fuck about a guy spreading his seed far and wide.
My mum’s cousin was out of wedlock and her mum for the most time a single mum back in the 1960s. “Bastard” was an insult people hurled at the kid. How the fuck could they?
Yeah, family values. All they ever do is to deny legal protection for children.
This, together with that child marriage link Giliell posted in TNET…
Somehow, I’m not getting that ‘family’ and ‘children are cherished’ vibe from these people.
rq:
No. They can claim to be pro-life all they like, but they are the embodiment of anti-life. Their hatred of women is stunning in its openness, and their hatred of children isn’t far behind. There’s zero value in children as far as they are concerned. The only reason they “care” about outlawing abortion is that it’s a vehicle to punish women.
The whole “widowed” thing is actually quite modern. For most of human history, you’d have one parent or another (or both) die in childbirth or in war; kids were raised by whoever raised them, not necessarily their parents. The idiot christofascists are longing for a past that never existed (after all, their own man-god was an illegitimate child of rape)