by Kathleen Gilbert
WASHINGTON, DC, January 11, 2011 (LifeSiteNews.com) - In a switch intended to expand recognition of “different” family models, the State Department will add the terms “parent 1” and “parent 2” to the country’s passport applications.
“These improvements are being made to provide a gender neutral description of a child’s parents and in recognition of different types of families,” read a statement posted on the State Department website.
Originally the State Department had intended to scrub the terms “father” and “mother” from the applications completely, but after news broke about the change, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stepped in to make it less controversial by retaining the terms father and mother, while also offering the “parent 1” and “parent 2” terminology.
Brenda Sprague, deputy assistant Secretary of State for Passport Services, claimed that the change was not for political correctness but to accommodate “changes in medical science and reproductive technology.”
But FRC President Tony Perkins called the move obvious pandering to the homosexual lobby.
“This is clearly designed to advance the causes of same-sex ‘marriage’ and homosexual parenting without statutory authority, and violates the spirit if not the letter of the Defense of Marriage Act,” said Perkins in a written statement to Fox News Radio.
One gay rights group that had lobbied for the change to passport applications for years applauded the move.
“Changing the term mother and father to the more global term of parent allows many different types of families to be able to go and apply for a passport for their child without feeling like the government doesn’t recognize their family,” Jennifer Chrisler, executive director of Family Equality Council, told FOX News, which originally broke the story.
“Our government needs to recognize that the family structure is changing,” she added.
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