“There’s no doubt about it. Just look around you. Gay couples obviously make the best parents. They’re the ones adopting the older kids and the mixed race babies, and look how well they do.”

“Come on – it can’t be that simple,” she argued. “Are you saying kids are better off without parents of opposite sex?”

“Of course not,” he replied. “In fact, I think there are some dangers inherent in same-sex environments. I’m just observing that the kids sure seem to turn out well.” He sat back and drank from his cup. He looked around for a refill.

“Then what dangers?” she asked, and the tone of her voice was less aggressive, more curious. Their server approached and poured.

“Dangers in perspective. It happens whenever a homogeneous group restricts its interactions to its own members. Girls get more tidy, boys get more heady, old folks more petulant, disabled people more indignant …” He sipped, nodded, sipped again. “But that concentration doesn’t get in the way of good gay parenting.”

“You’re right. It’s probably because the couple already understands each other, you know? In basic ways.”

“Exactly,” he murmured. His strong features softened. “Gad but this year’s pressing is good.”

She drank from her own cup and agreed. It was probably why they were getting along so well. Most days they would have been battling already.

“No, what I meant to discuss,” he continued, “before I was distracted by your dazzling participation,” and she tensed as she heard the habitual sarcasm in his tone, “is how to encourage heterosexual unions. They may not be the best parents but they’re the best at producing offspring, which we want, so we have to find ways to encourage them to connect in the first place and then to stay connected while they raise their young.”

“Then glorify the union.”

“I’m thinking the same thing. It’s the only way to go. We can engineer tax subsidies and other municipal considerations, but the real draw has to be blessings and divine approval. We’ll call it marriage. Only heterosexual couples will be allowed. Let’s do it.”

Zeus’s proposals almost always carried, but that one passed fast and unanimously. He and Hera finished their cups of ambrosia and in a rare demonstration of amity, she took his offered arm when they left.