Must Children Give Up Their Most Formative Relationships?

  The child needs both a dad and a mom, rather than two dads or two moms. So, Mary Summerhays, organizer of the "Stand for Marriage" rally held Thursday, was right when she told the crowd,  "It strains the credibility of the courts to suggest that children must give up their most formative relationships when they get in the way of adult relationships."
   Almost this is a winning argument Utah's lawyers could hammer home if the same-sex marriage case is accepted to be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court. How can you sacrifice the child's right to needed relationships in favor of the adults' right to have a relationship? As is said, one person's rights end where another person's nose begins. The child might have a small nose, but it's still a nose that should be counted.
   Unfortunately, there is a hitch in this argument, isn't there? Utah's lawyers are going to have to show the child does indeed benefit from having both a mom and a dad. Saying it's so doesn't make it so.
   But, suppose Utah's lawyers were succesful in persuading the Supreme Court judges that the child's rights should take precedence over the adults' rights. Would the court then say, Okay, those of same-sex affections can get married, but they cannot adopt children? That would be kind of a split decision on the matter.