Adoption STAR Associate Director Michael Hill writes about his admiration for agency clients Joe Vitale and Rob Talmas and the fight they took to the Supreme Court of the United States earlier this week.
Having the opportunity to spend time in Washington, D.C. on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of this week proved to be incredibly powerful for so many reasons. As we’ve previously mentioned via our blog and Facebook page, Adoption STAR clients Joe and Rob (and their son Cooper) were plaintiffs in the group of gay marriage related cases that the Supreme Court of the United States hear oral arguments on just this week.
While there’s been lots of different discussion points regarding the agency’s take on this entire legal battle, one thing I repeatedly reflect on over and over again is this – at the heart of it all, Joe and Rob were fighting this fight for Cooper. Their desire to be the best advocates they could be for their son led them on this journey…and they didn’t shy away from the responsibility that comes with making such a decision.
When I think about being an advocate for your child, not to mention working to leave a legacy for your child, what greater or more significant act could Rob and Joe have done for Cooper? When he’s older, Cooper will be able to look back on history with tremendous pride. His fathers did everything they could to ensure that he (and their family as a whole) would not be treated differently in the eyes of our government. By taking their case to the highest court in the land, Joe and Rob showed a strong, outright refusal to allow their family to be viewed as any less important, less valuable, or less legitimate than any other American family. That, in my humble opinion, is about as noble of a fight as two parents could take up on behalf of their child.