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Why US Laws Must Expand Beyond the Nuclear Family | Diana Adams | TED

The nuclear family model may no longer be the norm in the US, but it’s still the basis for social and economic benefits like health care, tax breaks and citizenship. Lawyer and LBGTQIA advocate Diana Adams believes that all families, regardless of biological relationship or legal marriage, are deserving of equal legal rights and recognition.…

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The nuclear family model may no longer be the norm in the US, but it’s still the basis for social and economic benefits like health care, tax breaks and citizenship. Lawyer and LBGTQIA advocate Diana Adams believes that all families, regardless of biological relationship or legal marriage, are deserving of equal legal rights and recognition. They present a vision for how US laws can benefit all families — from same-sex bonds to multi-parent partnerships — and explain how a more inclusive definition of family could strengthen your relationships and community.

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39 Comments

39 Comments

  1. justme2222dj

    March 25, 2022 at 3:27 pm

    As someone that does not live in the U.S i feel that it is falling behind so much compard to the rest of the western world

  2. LMFQ

    March 25, 2022 at 3:29 pm

    While I listen to more conservatives than not, I don’t knock what she’s saying. Family is what you make it.

  3. Adox Artist

    March 25, 2022 at 3:31 pm

    👍

  4. SimSim

    March 25, 2022 at 3:33 pm

    Tbh there’s a lot of TedTalks nowadays that are just screaming everything is bad, but there was a lot of sense found here. My own parents actually married because it was a legal pain to get him to be recognised as the father of their first child and others l know married because of finacial benefits, though they would probably have stayed together either way. Personally I don’t see much in marriage other than financial benifits too

  5. j leigh

    March 25, 2022 at 3:47 pm

    And, inheritance.

  6. Sathya Narayanan

    March 25, 2022 at 4:19 pm

    Society has given too much focus on romantic and body-based relationships, often neglecting other important connections in life. It is time we live a more meaningful, holistic life.

  7. Brianna Cooper

    March 25, 2022 at 4:30 pm

    Fantastic! I deeply appreciate this timely and deeply needed talk. Thank you Ms.Adams for your work.

  8. Kay Kay

    March 25, 2022 at 4:33 pm

    💚

  9. Ace Virginian

    March 25, 2022 at 5:32 pm

    Brilliant talk …
    TED standards gave just inched up a notch.
    Thanks 🙏👍

  10. Kirmie44

    March 25, 2022 at 5:41 pm

    I’ve wanted to here something like this for a long time

  11. David Brelin

    March 25, 2022 at 5:55 pm

    If corporations have individual rights, then families – however constructed – should too!

    • David Brelin

      March 25, 2022 at 5:55 pm

      And it would seem that the US Supreme Court agrees already too!

  12. Holly Morelli

    March 25, 2022 at 6:23 pm

    Finally! I am single and this is accurate also a co-parent !!!

  13. luke thomas

    March 25, 2022 at 7:37 pm

    Where is the best place to draw the line for breaking quarantine rules? Quarantines are effective, but not if you let anyone who claims to be family break it.

  14. R A Feller

    March 26, 2022 at 2:18 am

    Well you’re starting to get there, but why in the world does it have to be a family of humans? I know lots of single people who take care of many animals. They meet the definition for the love and care that takes place in families, and they are happy families. What about Us?

  15. Claire Rousseau

    March 26, 2022 at 4:20 am

    Nuclear families are new?!
    That is the most insane thing I’ve heard in a while. Of course children do best with their mother & father—you know, the people who created them. Kids do NOT need to be dragged into your polyamorous deathstyle.
    This woman is a train wreck.

  16. Tamera Yvonne

    March 26, 2022 at 6:01 am

    I don’t think that we need to take away rights of straight marriages to get our own.

  17. Douglas Clark

    March 26, 2022 at 7:42 am

    If you’re pushing for polygamy here you just lost all the moderate democrats, and they will vote against you along with the entire right.

  18. Thomas Sampson

    March 26, 2022 at 8:29 am

    The heterosexual two parent married family model has proven a cornerstone of civilization across the world since the beginning of time. Except for a few miniscule cultures.

    Society is better when children are brought up in those stable settings. That is why it is incentivised.

  19. Jehuty Snake

    March 26, 2022 at 11:15 am

    Making changes isn’t a problem, it can be very good even, it only depends on what or how it’s done. The “Nuclear Family” idea isn’t something recent. For thousands of years most of the world was just the man works protects provide for the family, the woman was there to marry, have children, take care of the children and home because the world didn’t have so many Rights or many peaceful moments as today compared to so many wars and death of the past. To make sure humanity survived, they needed to have a lot of children, many died but a minimum would survive. The World and technology of today isn’t the same of the past. In any case yes, there should be changes and more help to other couples and single people.

  20. ملتقى التعلم Learning Forum

    March 26, 2022 at 11:46 am

    … but from what I’ve consistently found, it doesn’t matter if that stability is mom and dad, widow, widower, divorced, grandparents, uncles or aunts this is the best for children and their stability in life. we don’t create but we coexist with the situations and try to develop ourselves and treat our flaws instead of forcing other people to like us… Nature itself gives good example of relationships between sky and earth.
    give me a flower from the sky which grew up thanks to the rain or earth…
    thank you so much

  21. P. C. Garcia

    March 26, 2022 at 2:19 pm

    No thanks 👎

  22. English with JUST ENGLISH

    March 26, 2022 at 8:27 pm

    *Please support Ukraine now 🇺🇦🙏*

  23. alicyclic Da

    March 27, 2022 at 12:49 am

    yes laws should be changed to support diff families

  24. Sean Reynolds

    March 27, 2022 at 4:18 am

    I’m going to call bs on the nuclear family being an invention of the industrial revolution. The only thing she could be referring to would be that families tended to be multigenerational prior before the 1900’s, but it’s disingenuous to say that it was not a nuclear family.

  25. 阿卜杜·安拉٭٭٭⃝🇨🇳٭٭

    March 27, 2022 at 6:43 am

    TED✓
    Yes, why??
    ..

    Thank you.

  26. अब्दुल्ला 🇮🇳

    March 27, 2022 at 6:45 am

    Maybe yes!. 🤔

    We must say openly
    to each other the things we hold in our hearts and that too often are
    said only behind closed doors. 

    There must be a sustained effort

    to
    listen to each other;

    to learn from each other;

    to respect one another;

    and to seek common ground. 

    As the Holy Koran tells us, “Be conscious
    of God and speak always the truth.” 

    That is what I will try
    to do today — to speak the truth as best I can,

    humbled by the task
    before us,

    and firm in my belief that the interests we share as human
    beings are far more powerful than the forces that drive us apart.

    These are not just
    United Nations | الأمـــــمُ المتّـحــــدَة
    ideas,
    they are human rights. 

    And that is why we will support them everywhere.

    Thank you.
    And May God’s peace 🌏 be upon you all.

    GOOD HEALTH ALWAYS EVERYONE !!!.

    I Thank you.
    🇮🇳🇮🇳🇮🇳
    🌏

  27. अब्दुल्ला 🇮🇳

    March 27, 2022 at 6:45 am

    🤔

    We must say openly
    to each other the things we hold in our hearts and that too often are
    said only behind closed doors. 

    There must be a sustained effort

    to
    listen to each other;

    to learn from each other;

    to respect one another;

    and to seek common ground. 

    As the Holy Koran tells us, “Be conscious
    of God and speak always the truth.” 

    That is what I will try
    to do today — to speak the truth as best I can,

    humbled by the task
    before us,

    and firm in my belief that the interests we share as human
    beings are far more powerful than the forces that drive us apart.

    These are not just
    United Nations | الأمـــــمُ المتّـحــــدَة
    ideas,
    they are human rights. 

    And that is why we will support them everywhere.

    Thank you.
    And May God’s peace 🌏 be upon you all.

    GOOD HEALTH ALWAYS EVERYONE !!!.

    I Thank you.
    🇮🇳🇮🇳🇮🇳
    🌏

  28. ItsKeagan

    March 27, 2022 at 7:18 am

    I think they award married parents-men and women, because it is what has kept the world glued together. Men and women are yin and Yang, they need each other. It encourages reproduction, healthier home environments and instills security in children who need that more than ever today.

    I’m not bigoted, I’m a realest. I’m going to speak the truth even if it’s hard to hear. That’s what I did to overcome my trauma, I no longer live within unrealistic views.

  29. jimstr10

    March 27, 2022 at 7:25 am

    Well is she saying companies should stop giving any benefits to married couples? Because the other way just means people can cheat to gain benefits and claim to live together when they don’t lol. So you could have multiple people share their insurance without paying shit?

    The nuclear family isn’t holding because of this push to destroy it. All media right now encourages separation. Children suffer over this, suicide rates are also rising, funny how as the nuclear family disappears mass shootings, depression, drug abuse increases.

    Statistically children raised in a nuclear family are more likely to succeed and do well in school, less mental disorders, statistics happier, less likely to have addictive tendencies. This is about putting your happiness above those around you. It’s about valuing yourself over your children.

    I’m not saying other families are wrong, what I’m saying is that teaching our children to reject the nuclear model will only continue this direction towards loneliness and depression for all these poor sounds that have bought into this ideology…

  30. Laurence Wainwright

    March 27, 2022 at 9:49 am

    The nuclear family should be the model to which society aspires, because it is the best environment in which to raise children. This woman is celebrating dysfunctional families and the breakdown of society in the West, because that’s what leftists want.

  31. Travelholic sisters 👯‍♀️

    March 27, 2022 at 10:03 am

    ♥️

  32. Steve Payne

    March 27, 2022 at 2:34 pm

    Yes, the laws encourage family.

  33. 05_2B_paul strohm

    March 27, 2022 at 10:56 pm

    Because of the economic crisis and the rate of unemployment, now is the best time to invest and make money 💯

  34. Ndeye Delgado

    March 27, 2022 at 11:17 pm

    I ❤this

  35. Henry Knetsar

    March 28, 2022 at 11:25 am

    Family first. This BS that we have been dealing with since The Pill came along and let us think that we control Mother Nature is out of hand. It isn’t working.

  36. Aurora Maddox

    March 28, 2022 at 3:48 pm

    👍

  37. Jane Atwell Robinson's 3G-Grandkid, Christine*

    March 30, 2022 at 3:01 am

    I don’t like the idea that you have to make Aunt Bea your polyamorous fling legally to put her on your health insurance though. I would like to have Aunt Bea on my health insurance, maybe, because she IS FAMILY, but only my husband/ children inherit my estate, and so on.

  38. Dolly Love

    March 30, 2022 at 11:39 pm

    💕

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