Families are changing, get used to it. Our culture is constantly infused with alternative lifestyles, and family life is no exception. Whether you agree with it or not, to deny it is to reveal you are out of touch with reality.

When anchorman Pete Wilson decided to criticize the decision of two gay people, San Francisco Supervisor Bevan Dufty, and his friend Rebecca Goldfader, to have a baby together, he exposed his antiquated views. Wilson, who reports the evening news on ABC, said on his talk show on KGO that Dufty and Goldfader’s baby was a “travesty.”

Beyond the fact that we should be questioning the ethics of a journalist who is moonlighting as a ranting talk show host, Wilson’s views of family life are archaic and hurtful to a lot of people. Wilson said he doesn’t think it’s appropriate for two people who don’t have a romantic attachment to have a child together. Evidently, he’s under the impression that all married, straight couples that have children are madly in love and will stay that way.

I have to wonder where Wilson is getting his ideas about this nuclear family – almost half of all marriages end in divorce. Wilson even said in his broadcast on KGO, “You think the high divorce rate in this country has been, generally speaking, good for kids? Why not start out divorced? See if that’ll work.” I think it just might.

If statistics state your parents are going to end up divorced, it seems it would be better if they were platonic to begin with. That way, the children don’t have to go through the pain of seeing their parents fight, hate each other and finally separate.

In Wilson’s sarcastic words, “it’s better if all that silly emotional stuff doesn’t get in the way.” I’m not opposed to it. Maybe it would be better if emotions didn’t get in the way of two people raising a child. Based on our divorce rate, it’s not obvious we have any basis to assume that being married or sexually attracted to your partner is better.

Before we had freedom of speech, a right to a fair trial, or a right not to testify against a spouse, we had the right to propagate the species. In fact, it’s not just a right, it’s the ultimate instinct, hard-wired into our brains, that allows the human race to continue.

As a species trying to survive extinction, we are obliged to procreate. Yet here we are, debating the validity of two people who value and respect one another, and who decided to have a baby together.

Roughly 245 babies are born every minute. They are born to anyone physically capable of procreating. Nowhere is there a rulebook that says the only people who can reproduce are those whose lifestyles are consistent with a certain, narrow definition of “family.”

“Society is changing rapidly, and whoever tries to attack that is too traditional,” said Amber Arvard, an SF State business and marketing major. “As long as a baby knows it has a loving mother and father, that’s all that matters.”

Arvard is right. Society is evolving. It is becoming more diverse and growing to include the wide range of human cultures that occupies the globe. Rather than trying to halt this process, we should be welcoming successful and loving families, unconventional or not.

As for the proud parents, Dufty said they’re just glad to have this chance. “We feel very fortunate to have a happy, healthy daughter who we’re learning how to raise together,” he said.

Sounds like a functional family to me.