There goes the neighborhood

Why is it that self-proclaimed conservatives feel so threatened by families headed by a homosexual couple rather than a heterosexual couple? With the annual White House Easter Egg Roll on the horizon, conservative groups are up in arms over the desire of gay couples to bring their children to the event. In fact, some have even suggested that all the fun should be restricted to an invitation-only list of attendees. "Sorry, but we don't want kids here if their parents are gay." Nice.

Yet some conservatives, alerted to the plans this week, accuse gay activists of trying to "crash" an event for children and turn it into a forum for ideological politicking. Some groups are discussing ways to respond.

"It's improper to use the egg roll for political purposes," said Mark Tooley of the conservative Institute on Religion and Democracy. Tooley wrote a critical article this week in the Weekly Standard magazine about the planned event that has circulated widely on conservative Web sites.

Since the article appeared, Chrisler said Family Pride has received "a flood of hate-filled, venomous messages telling us that our families aren't welcome."

At the moment, it appears that the White House is refusing to heed the call for restrictions on attendance.

Susan Whitson, press secretary to first lady Laura Bush, indicated the White House was unlikely to restrict admission to the egg roll.

"All families are really welcome to attend," she told the Associated Press on Friday, provided they comply with rules that each family group have no more than two adults and include at least one child under 8.

Well, that's a bit unexpected, given how this administration typically bows to the wishes of its most radical elements. And we all know how they prefer to limit attendance at presidential appearances to those who will not challenge the President or his beliefs. Hopefully, the White House will hold to this policy of openness for this event. The sexual orientation of one's parents should not dictate one's participation in some harmless Easter fun or anything else, for that matter.

And maybe...just maybe...people will begin to see that good and caring parenting goes well beyond the gender and sexual orientation of the parents. People who believe otherwise do nothing but show their ignorance.