I actually protested for marriage equality here in Illinois; my wife and I refused to file our marriage license until the law was updated and asked our wedding guests to forgo gifts and instead donate to Lambda Legal and other organizations also working for marriage equality.

So when I say “families”, I do mean queer couples as well. But also intergenerational households. The focus on individualism and geographical mobility has been destructive to intergenerational wealth and wisdom, to familial connections, and to mental health. It’s one of my big gripes with the way capitalism operates in the US, honestly; the balance of power lies far too heavily with employers rather than the workers and this often means that family life suffers for the sake of economic advantage.

But yeah, I’m also talking about children. I don’t think anyone who doesn’t want kids should be pressured to have them, but for those who do want kids, that’s something we as a society should encourage. To that end I favor pronatalist policies as well as policies that seek to make adoption easier and less expensive, especially domestic adoption.

And while I know sometimes pronatalism is used as a fig leaf for anti-immigration sentiment, that’s not the case here; I’m very pro-immigration for a variety of reasons but it’s no secret that immigrants tend to have larger families and are more likely to have international households.