Now that the Supreme Court has thumbed its nose at Merriam-Webster by redefining the word “marriage,” the Tennessee Administrative Office of the Courts (AOC) decided it would attempt to thumb its nose at science. By replacing the words “Mother” and “Father” on court documents involving children with gender-neutral terms “Parent 1” and “Parent 2,” the courts attempted to deny the science that it still takes a man and a woman–a father and a mother–to conceive a child. Because political correctness feelings or something.
After a ton of negative feedback, they have reversed the change…for now.
The Tennessee courts are not the first to deny the science of X and Y. In 2011, the State Department removed these offensive and all too sciency words on passport applications. Brenda Sprague, deputy assistant Secretary of State for Passport Services, claimed in a statement that the change wasn’t about political correctness but was instead a nod to science and reproductive technology:
“We find that with changes in medical science and reproductive technology that we are confronting situations now that we would not have anticipated 10 or 15 years ago,” she said.
Did Ms. Sprague know something the rest of us don’t? Have you heard about these “changes” where it doesn’t require sperm (man) and egg (woman) to create human life? Last I checked, even if fertilization occurred in a petri dish, it still requires male and female DNA to work.
Interestingly, it was then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton who intervened and ordered that State-issued passport forms retain the the words “Mother” and “Father,” so they now read “Mother/Father/Parent.”
I guess we’ve found Secretary Clinton’s one accomplishment. But knowing her opinion that it takes a village to raise a child, I wonder if she will have the forms changed to read “Mother/Father/Parent/Village” if she’s somehow elected president in 2016.
