Images of parents

Re “Missing from Prop. 8 ads: gays,” Opinion, Oct. 26

The reason you don’t see gay people in the ads is very simple. When straight people look at gay people, they often experience the ick factor, even if the ad shows gay couples laughing at parties, playing baseball with their kids, sitting by their dying grandmother, having coffee with friends or going to church and praying.

It is a shame, because there is more to life than what people do in private. Straight people flaunt their sexuality with pictures of their kids. But they don’t see it that way. They see a loving family.

Isn’t there any way to overcome the ick factor so that images of gay people sharing their excitement over their child getting into college, or finding peace in drinking hot chocolate over a campfire, would be only that -- people living and loving as supportive families?

Thea Iberall

Long Beach

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Arguing in favor of same-sex marriage, Rauch says that “for children, no other arrangement matches the security and stability afforded by married parents.” The converse of this statement is that children suffer when they are separated from one or both of their biological parents.

Where do gay couples get children? From the breakup of a previous heterosexual relationship, or from a surrogate parenting arrangement. In either case, children are deprived of the nurturing of at least one biological parent.

We should try to reduce the frequency of this child-rearing situation, not legally endow it with dignity and respect equal to that afforded to man-woman marriage.

Roger Bonilla

Sunnyvale