Witherspoon Institute: The Anti-Equality Game Plan Laid Bare

Writing on the Australian conservative Catholic Mercatornet website, Luis Tellez of the Witherspoon Institute has usefully admitted their current strategy is what is cited below. As usual, I?ll provide commentary and an annotated version of their claims:

Tellez: ?Social science?research?shows us, and a growing body of journalistic reporting reveals, that gay men are not interested in permanent monogamous relationships. Lesbians are more apt to be monogamous, but less apt to remain together long-term. One myth that LGBT activists push is that marriage is what most homosexual people want. Will the provision of marriage cause gay and lesbian Americans to enter lasting and stable relationships en masse? Unlikely. Another myth that the activists push is the ?no differences? thesis: the claim that there are no differences in outcomes for children parented by heterosexual couples or homosexual couples.?

Reply: Tellez is citing HIV/AIDS prevention data and there is wide variation in the frequency and number of sexual partners within gay male communities. Moreover, Tellez?? argument does not acknowledge that substantive relationship equality and counselling and psychotherapeutic services may affect the duration of LGBT relationships, increasing their duration. And moreover, mainstream data tells us exactly that- that same-sex parenting doesn?t harm children brought up within stable LGBT relationships.

Tellez then goes on to cite several incidents that he claims gives the Christian Right hope that marriage equality isn?t inevitable.

?First, in a peer-reviewed research paper published in the prestigious journalSocial Science Research, titled ?Same-sex parenting and children?s outcomes: A closer examination of the American psychological association?s brief on lesbian and gay parenting?, Professor Loren Marks of Louisiana State University?s School of Human Ecology reviews the 59 studies referenced in the 2005 American Psychological Association brief that supported the ?no differences? thesis. Marks concludes:

?To restate, not one of the 59 studies referenced in the 2005 APA Brief compares a large, random, representative sample of lesbian or gay parents and their children with a large, random, representative sample of married parents and their children. The available data, which are drawn primarily from small convenience samples, are insufficient to support a strong generalizable claim either way. Such a statement would not be grounded in science.?

Response: Ah, that would be the Professor Loren Marks whose defence testimony for Proposition 8 fell apart when he admitted that he actually hadn?t read any of the affirmative research into same-sex parenting that he was ?critiquing? for sponsors of the Californian anti-equality referendum in question?

Second, Mark Regnerus?s?New Family Structures Study (NFSS) uses the second-largest nationally representative sample (ever) to measure a host of outcomes in which the adult children of intact biological families fare better than any other combination, including children raised by a mother or a father who has been in a gay or a lesbian relationship. Its results also show something striking and unexpected: only two out of 15,000 young Americans screened for the survey reported spending their entire childhood with two lesbian parents; none reported the same with two gay fathers. Children, of course, don?t fare as well when there is a lack of stability in the home.

Response: And that would be the Mark Regnerus whose work has been criticised by the American Psychological Association, American Psychiatric Association, American Medical Association, American Psychoanalytic Association, the National Association of Social Workers, California Psychiatric Association and California Association of Social Workers in an amicus curiae document, cited below?? Regnerus? ?study? has been rebutted by leading organisations that work within the field of child health, welfare and development. That?s all that needs to be said. Poor research design, misleading claims about that research design, hyped by the US Christian Right and its satellites, but not a substantive criticism of existing mainstream research.

Third, scores of people who read the Regnerus study were inspired to reveal even more about the gay subculture; and, yes, by their accounts, the Regnerus study depicts reality far better than shows like?Modern Family?and?The New Normal. Surprised? Most of these people will remain nameless, rather than submit themselves to unwanted hostility. But expect more of them to step up as witnesses to the lies that undergird the movement for same-sex marriage. See, for example, Robert Lopez?s?Public Discourse?essay ?Growing Up With Two Moms: The Untold Children?s View.?

Response: In other words, anecdotal claims. See my critique of Regnerus, cited above.

Fourth, legal cases are mounting against the discrimination, harassment, and loss of jobs for people who do not support same-sex marriage. A new growth industry is the pro bono legal associations to protect freedom of conscience and freedom of religion, such as the Alliance Defending Freedom, the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, and more recently the newly created Freedom of Conscience Fund. It is very laudable that trained professionals are stepping up to defend civil liberties; one may hope this will continue to awaken the conscience of the public.

Response: In other words, Christian Right pressure groups are safeguarding the ?right? to discriminate against LGBT community members, couples and families. How is that news? It?s been an ongoing process for the last three decades.

Recommended:

Rebuttal of? Regnerus Study: Karen Golinski versus US Parent Office of Personnel Management, John Berry and Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group of the US House of Representatives: Amicus Curiae Criticism of Same-Sex Parenting and Regnerus Study: http://tinyurl.com/7g55hzt

Loren Marks and Proposition 8:

Zack Ford: ?Clues that the Publication of the Antigay Parenting ?Study? Were Politically Calculated? Think Progress: http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/2012/06/25/506062/clues-that-publication-of-the-anti-gay-parenting-study-were-politically-calculated/?mobile=nc

?Scott Rose:?Authors of Disreputable Antigay Studies triggered?Growing Numbers of Critics, Rapidly Widening Scandal? New Civil Rights Movement:?25.o6.2012: ?http://thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/authors-of-disreputable-anti-gay-rights-studies-triggered-growing-numbers-of-critics-rapidly-widening-scandal/politics/2012/06/25/42133

Source: http://www.gaynz.com/blogs/redqueen/?p=2342

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