Men who raise the children they have sired, and do to in a monogamous relationship (i.e. Marriage) with the mother of said children, ought to be supported by society and our cultural norms and mores. It is a family with both a mother and a father that provides an optimal environment for children, especially their own biological offspring.
Yet such a man is facing discrimination from his own company, by denying parental leave for a new child because he is that child’s biological father: “all parents of new children have the option of 10 paid weeks off — except biological fathers.” As a result, he has filed an EEOC charge against the company that discriminated against him. This discriminatory effect is due to two policies:
“The first: Women who give birth get 10 weeks off, paid. The second: Women or men who have babies through adoption or surrogacy have the option of 10 weeks off, paid, to be caregivers to their new children.
“But under no circumstances can a biological father get 10 weeks off paid, even if he is needed for caregiving. We get two weeks of paid parental leave.
“(If there’s an adoptive couple in which both parents work for [the company]…, they can divvy up the 12 weeks as they wish, with neither taking more than 10.)”
Therein is what makes this unfair. Men who are not biological fathers can take advantage of the full ten weeks off. For example, if a gay couple adopted a child, they would get ten weeks off, just as a traditional couple would if they adopted. But a gay couple could not have a child between them, like a different sex couple can. While it is possible for a gay man to be a biological father, two gay men in a committed relationship can never have a biological child between them. This rule does not apply to women:
“Here’s one an attorney gave me: If I were a woman, but other elements of my situation were the same — I was still with the same woman (so that would be a same-sex relationship), and she gave birth to our child, legally I would have to adopt in order to be co-parent. I would then have the option of 10 weeks off, paid.”
With illegitimacy quickly becoming the norm, punishing men who raise their own children is beyond ludicrous, and quickly transcends to an assault on our civilization itself.
