In The New York Times "Health" section, writer Natalie Angier describes the ever-evolving definition of the American family. Through stories of blended families, gay parents, cohabitation, immigrant families, career families, and even families with an incarcerated parent, Angier cheers how far we've come from the traditional two-parent, nuclear family. The report is filled with charts and stats from researchers who are shocked at how quickly diversity in the family makeup is changing. 

Researchers who study the structure and evolution of the American family express unsullied astonishment at how rapidly the family has changed in recent years, the transformations often exceeding or capsizing those same experts’ predictions of just a few journal articles ago.

Angier states that:

In increasing numbers, blacks marry whites, atheists marry Baptists, men marry men and women women, Democrats marry Republicans and start talk shows. Good friends join forces as part of the “voluntary kin” movement, sharing medical directives, wills, even adopting one another legally.

Single people live alone and proudly consider themselves families of one — more generous and civic-minded than so-called “greedy marrieds.”

Calling the traditional plan of stably married parents "old-fashioned," Angier remarks that although there is some adherence to the former way, most people see that as reserved for the educated elite. 

And what of the children of these diverse families? Angier points out that the high cost of raising a child to the age of 18, plus paying for their higher education, is one reason the nation's birthrate has been driven to its lowest point ever. She then quipped:

Say hello to your million-dollar bundle of oh joy.

But then there's the "gaby boom." Gay parents are adopting at record rates — doubling in the past decade and some estimating that one out of 37 children live with gay parents. A male couple she interviewed have adopted six children. 

We want them to have a very traditional childhood in a nontraditional setting.

There are many ways that the definition of family is changing, and there is no reason for America not to be a melting pot of ideas, but there is a war raging against tradition. There is a strong movement in the media that so harshly opposes tradition and, in fact, praises non-traditional arrangements so much, that the typical nuclear family is starting to feel isolated and illegitimate. And that is not true the diversity to which the liberal media stakes claim.