Children are no longer born to mothers and fathers.
They’re born to parents; specifically, Parent One and Parent Two.
At least so says the US Department of State. And a very sorry state that is indeed.
And it will get sorrier, is my forecast. At some point, they will “get real” and make room for Parent Three.
But never mind the forecast. Here’s shades-of-Dr-Zeuss the story:
The words “mother” and “father” will be removed from U.S. passport applications and replaced with gender neutral terminology, the State Department says.
“The words in the old form were ‘mother’ and ‘father,’” said Brenda Sprague, deputy assistant Secretary of State for Passport Services. “They are now ‘parent one’ and ‘parent two.’”
A statement on the State Department website noted: “These improvements are being made to provide a gender neutral description of a child’s parents and in recognition of different types of families.” The statement didn’t note if it was for child applications only.
The State Department said the new passport applications, not yet available to the public, will be available online soon.
Sprague said the decision to remove the traditional parenting names was not an act of political correctness.
“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.
[…]
The new gender-neutral passport application will be rolled out in February.
“Improvements”? Then we measure by different standards.
“Not an act of political correctness”? Oh. OK. Right.
“Changes in…reproductive technology”? Eh? Two men can now reproduce together? As can two women? 😯
America’s downward slide accelerates. And the condition isn’t unique to the United States.