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I told a kid a riddle my dad told me when I was 7. His answer proves how far we've come.

This classic riddle takes on new meaning as our world changes for the better.


When I was 7, my dad told me a riddle.

"A man and his son are driving in their car when they are hit by a tractor-trailer.

Photo via iStock.

(We were driving at the time, so of course this was the riddle he decided to tell.)

The father dies instantly.

The son is badly injured. Paramedics rush him to the hospital.

Photo via iStock.

As he is being wheeled into the operating room, the surgeon takes one look the boy and says:

'I can't operate on him. He's my son.'

How is that possible?!"

Without missing a beat, I answered:

"The doctor is his mom!"

Photo via iStock.

My dad first heard the riddle when he was a child in the '60s.

Back then, most women didn't work outside of the home.

Few of those who did had college degrees, much less professional degrees.

Female doctors were few and far between.

Back then, it was a hard riddle. A very hard riddle.

By 1993, when I first heard it, the notion that women could be highly skilled, highly trained professionals wasn't so absurd.

To me, it was normal.

I knew women who were lawyers. Bankers. Politicians. My own doctor was a woman.

To be sure, women still faced challenges and discrimination in the workplace. And even 20 years later, they still do.

But at its core, the riddle is about how a family can work. And that had changed. Long-overdue progress had rendered the big, sexist assumption that underpinned the whole thing moot.

A very hard riddle was suddenly not a riddle at all.

I never forgot it.

Now, I'm 30 — almost as old as my dad was he first told me that riddle.

My dad at 30 (left) and me at 30. Photos by Eric March/Upworthy and Mary March, used with permission.

I don't have kids, but I mentor a child through a volunteer program.

Once a week, we get together and hang out for an hour. We play ping pong, do science experiments, and write songs. Neither of us like to go outside.

It's a good match.

One day, we decided to try to stump each other with riddles.

He rattled off about five or six.

I could only remember one: The one about the man, his son, and the surgeon.

Photo via iStock.

I thought it would be silly to tell it.

I was sure that, if it was easy in 1993, it would be even easier in 2014. Kind of ridiculous, even.

But a part of me was curious.

It had been 21 years — almost as long as it had been between when my dad first heard the riddle and when he shared it with me.

Maybe it wouldn't be so easy.

Maybe I was missing something obvious, making my own flawed assumptions about how a family could work.

Maybe the world had changed in ways that would be second nature to a 13-year-old but not to me.

So I began:

"A man and his son are driving in their car, when they are hit by a tractor-trailer. The father dies instantly. The son is badly injured and is rushed to the hospital by paramedics. As he is being wheeled into the operating room, the surgeon takes one look at the boy and says:

'I can't operate on him. He's my son.'

How is that possible?!"

Without missing a beat, he answered: "it's his other dad"

Photo via iStock.

Times change. Progress isn't perfect. But no matter what shape a family takes, at the end of the day, #LoveWins.


This article was written by Eric March and originally appeared on 06.21.16

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A tennis star claimed the sport is ‘full of lesbians.’ John McEnroe’s response? Epic.

In a fiery new video produced by Eurosport's "Game, Set, and Mats," American tennis legend John McEnroe blasted Australian tennis star Margaret Court for her recent appalling homophobic comments.

He also took the opportunity to unveil incredible plans to celebrate gay marriage in Australia at the expense of Court ... and with help from none other than Elton John.  

Now that marriage equality has won out in Australia, McEnroe's proposed celebration will be quite the memorable occasion.

To understand why so many people are applauding McEnroe, you first should understand how stunningly offensive Court's recent comments about LGBTQ people really were.

In an interview with Christian Vision Radio, Court said transgender people are influenced by the devil, alleged LGBTQ rights activists are brainwashing children like Hitler did, and claimed, disappointingly, that the sport she once championed is now "full of lesbians."

That interview came on the heels of Court's public boycott of Qantas Airlines after the company's CEO voiced support for same-sex marriage.

Margaret Court. Photo by Ryan Pierse-Pool/Getty Images.

Court's comments haven't gone unnoticed in Australia either.

Many players have called for Melbourne's Margaret Court Arena — one of the country's most prominent tennis venues — to be renamed in light of her homophobic and transphobic remarks.

McEnroe, long known for his blunt candor, has other plans in mind for Court's namesake arena. That's where Elton John comes in.

When same-sex marriage comes to Australia, "I will personally call my good friend Elton John to host the biggest same-sex mass wedding ceremony ever seen — in Margaret Court Arena," McEnroe says in the video, addressing Court directly. "Margaret, that’s the kind of guy I am.”

Elton John (left), Andy Roddick (center), and John McEnroe (right) watch a tennis match together in 2014. Photo by Jordan Mansfield/Getty Images.

McEnroe also tore into Court for her comments about tennis being "full of lesbians."  

“The way I see it, there are three options regarding this statement," McEnroe skewered, staring into the camera, both angry and amused.

"Number one: This is true, and who gives a f***? Number two: This is not true, and who should give a f***? And number three: This is half-true and should we really give a f***?”

After the threat of her arena losing its name, McEnroe's blistering takedown, and a good public roasting on Twitter, maybe Court will take a moment to reflect on the lesson most of us learned in grade school: If you don't have something nice to say, don't say anything at all.

This post was updated on 12/07/2017.

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No two scoops for you: Why Australian Ben & Jerry's is banning same-flavor scoops.

Ben & Jerry's is implementing a new policy that will surely ruffle some feathers in Australia.

On May 24, the ice cream company announced that all 26 of its Aussie stores will be barring customers from ordering multiple scoops of the same flavor.

Why? Marriage equality isn't yet legal in Australia.

The flavor ban, of course, is meant to be symbolic of Australia's ban on same-sex marriage.

Despite the indisputable popularity of marriage equality in Australia, political gridlock has prevented parliament from approving any measure that would legalize same-sex marriage.

The country's (very dated) Marriage Act 1961 prohibits two people of the same gender from tying the knot.

That's where the ice cream scoop ban comes in.

Ben & Jerry's knows the new policy might upset some customers. But that's sort of the point.

The company — which has championed progressive causes like climate action, ending systemic racism in law enforcement, and expanding voting rights in the U.S. — has never been one to shy away from controversy.

Getting angry at the ban on two scoops of the same flavor "doesn’t even begin to compare to how furious you would be if you were told you were not allowed to marry the person you love,"the ice cream company's website reads.

Photo by Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images.

In addition to the flavor ban, Ben & Jerry's is setting up mailboxes in all of their Australian stores so customers can write their representatives, urging them to support marriage equality ahead of the next parliament sitting on June 13. The company is also encouraging customers to get involved with Australia's Equality Campaign.

These might sound like bold stances for a company to take. But to the ice cream makers, it's simply standing up for what most people believe in: "At Ben & Jerry’s we love love, and we think most Australians do too."

To learn more about Ben & Jerry's efforts promoting marriage equality in Australia, visit the company's website.

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Finally, marriage equality is coming to Asia. These delightful pics say it all.

LGBTQ rights advocates won a major victory in Taiwan.

Taiwan is about to become the first country in Asia to legalize same-sex marriage.

On May 24, the island nation's highest court ruled that prohibiting two people from marrying based on their gender is unconstitutional.

Photo by Chiang Ying-ying/AP.

The historic decision gives Taiwan's parliament two years to either amend old laws or enact new ones to accommodate for the ruling.

The decision was met with an outpouring of tears, hugs, and cheers from LGBTQ people and their allies in Taipei.

Photo by Sam Yeh/AFP/Getty Images.

Photo by Ying-ying/AP.

Activist Chi Chia-wei brought a request to Taiwan's highest court, challenging a provision that defined marriage as between a man and woman. Photo by Sam Yeh/AFP/Getty Images.

While the ruling was controversial — with a fair share of demonstrators protesting its potential passing in recent days — Taiwan is one of the most queer-friendly nations in the East. It boasts a large LGBTQ population and the biggest annual gay pride parade on the continent.

The decision's implications for Asia as a whole are nothing short of monumental.

In Asia, LGBTQ rights haven't progressed in the same ways or at the same speed as other regions of the world; some Asian countries are even going backward.

This week, for the first time ever, two men in Indonesia's conservative province of Aceh were caught practicing gay sex and caned 83 times each in front of a packed town square as a consequence. While most of Indonesia doesn't ban gay sex outright, Aceh adheres to Sharia.

On the same day that Taiwan's court ruled in favor of marriage equality, South Korea's military court sentenced a captain to prison for breaking its controversial "sodomy" ban — a measure Amnesty International has blasted as “a bigoted hunt to root out gay personnel.” In most Asian countries, including Japan and China, very few (if any) legislative steps have been taken to protect LGBTQ people as a marginalized minority.

Taiwan's court ruling wasn't just another inevitable step toward equality — it actively rejected the forces of a bigger regional trend chipping away at LGBTQ human rights.

Photo by Sam Yeh/AFP/Getty Images.

“In Asia, every country’s situation is different,” victorious activist Chi Chia-wei, who brought one of two petitions to the highest court, told the New York Times. “But this should certainly offer some encouragement to different societies to consider following in Taiwan’s footsteps and giving gays and lesbians the right to marry.”

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