October Event, My Two Moms

 Zach Wahl’s seems like your average 20 year old. He studied at the Iowa college of Engineering, and leads an everyday normal life, a life in fact that most teens in America experience today. He attends college, has close friends, he discovered an acquired passion for journalism, and was on his high school newspaper with aspirations to be a famous journalist someday. Zach Wahl’s also is the son of two gay moms. Like many children of same sex parents today, Zach has had to face many trials and tribulations that a normal teenage boy could not normally handle. However, it appears that Zach is not your average 20 year old. On January 31, 2011, Hall Wahl’s shared his riveting speech before the Iowa House Judiciary Committee.  The speech was truly genuine and heartfelt and you could tell he meant every word he was speaking. Soon after he gave that speech, it spread like wildfire across the web, TV, and any news channel you could think of. He was an overnight sensation receiving worldwide praise and recognition, appearing on media outlets such as Perez Hilton’s website, the Ellen DeGeneres Show, and MSNBC. Though fame helped launch his words into action, this is not why Walhl’s gives the speeches he does. He does them for family, for the right to have any kind of family, and not be discriminated or prejudiced against, but accepted for it.  In the Lane University Center Alice R. Manicur Hall Walhl’s discussed how his mother’s first met, how he was raised, and how in no way that affected the man he had become today.

His quotes that evening shone through with conviction, stating just that fact. His family means everything to him. His ideas on marriages were very specific.  Why cannot same sex marriage be allowed today? Wahl's speaks “Why not marriage? “ Why just a civil union? When you hear the word marriage, were all thinking of a wedding in a beautiful church, a large cake, maybe some bad decisions, that celebration and recognition of that relationship, marriage to me and my family is important, nothing says commitment like marriage”.  Wahl furthers his statement with “The idea is that we have never changed our view of marriage and that is false. Wahl is referring to the fact that the world is no longer black and white, there is no longer just opposite sex couples, or opposite sex marriage”.  Wahl’s also said some other very powerful quotes that night. “Society has said your love isn't real love ““we fear what we don’t understand and that is the truth”, “The idea that I can’t teach kindness or compassion to by kids because my moms are gay is absurd” He also discusses the issue of not having a father figure in his life. Wahl’s explains “A father is that biological connection, but not everyone in this room has had a dad, there’s just this emotional connotation that comes with the word dad.” In his ending statement, Wahls' expresses, “Im still learning, growing, developing, and becoming a better man.  With all the strength and determination he has shown so far, all he can look forward to is greater accomplishments, and hopefully, greater change.