The backers of a flawed, but widely cited academic study critical of gay relationships and their impact on children of gay parents, choreographed its release in time to influence “major decisions of the Supreme Court,” according to documents obtained by The American Independent.
The study, published in June 2012 and completed by Mark Regnerus, an associate professor of sociology, was widely denounced by LGBT advocacy groups to its claims that “adult children of gay parents reported significantly different, and often worse, life experiences than the children of married, heterosexual biological parents.”
Mark Regnerus
The study was funded with a $695,000 grant from the Witherspoon Institute and a $90,000 grant from the conservative Bradley Foundation — the Witherspoon Institute was founded by Princeton professor Robert P. George, who was the founding chairman of the notoriously anti-gay National Organization for Marriage.
According to The American Independent, the Witherspoon Institute recruited Regnerus to carry out a study that was designed to manipulate public policy. In communicating with donors about the research project, Luis Tellez, Witherspoon’s president, clearly expected results unfavorable to the gay marriage movement.
“The think tank’s efforts paid off. The “New Family Structures Study” came out just in time for opponents of gay marriage to cite it in multiple federal cases involving marriage equality – including two cases soon to be decided by the U.S. Supreme Court,” reported The American Independent.
So far, the New Family Structures Study has been cited in United States v. Windsor, a challenge to the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act, and Hollingsworth v. Perry, which seeks to overturn California’s gay-marriage ban, Proposition 8.
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops recently filed a “friend of the court” brief in Perry, arguing that, “A mother and father each bring something unique and irreplaceable to child-rearing that the other cannot.” The brief said that Regnerus’ study found “that children raised by married biological parents fared better in a range of significant outcomes than children raised in same-sex households.”
But the term “same-sex households” is misleading. The study effectively compared families with two always-married straight parents to some families who only had one parent but were characterized as households headed by gay fathers or lesbian mothers.
In a brief submitted last year in Windsor by the Republican-controlled Bipartisan Legal Advisory Group (BLAG) of the U.S. House of Representatives – which is helping to defend DOMA – the group referenced the study when arguing that the lesbian plaintiff in that case “does not, because she cannot, deny the existence of our bedrock cultural assumption that, when possible, children should be raised by their own biological mother and father.”
The study also has been cited in gay-marriage cases beyond those taken up by the Supreme Court. In August, a federal judge cited the New Family Structures Study in upholding Hawaii’s ban on gay marriage.
Plaintiffs and advocates involved with some of the cases in which the study has been cited as evidence to support bans on gay marriage are pointing out its many flaws.
Regnerus’ own professional organization, the American Sociological Association, recently filed an amicus brief in Hollingsworth v. Perry, arguing that his study “provides no support for the conclusions that same-sex parents are inferior parents or that the children of same-sex parents experience worse outcomes.”
Jennifer C. Pizer, senior counsel and director of the Law and Policy Project at the LGBT-rights legal advocacy group Lambda Legal, said she is not surprised to learn that the study’s funders had an agenda when financing this research. But what is more important, she said, is that the study is being used to support conclusions it did not find.
Read the full report at The American Independent →
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Closeted bottom.
So much for “morals”
The US Supreme Court should consider the Validity of ANYTHING presented to it.
this is a shock to us why??
This is actually an argument in FAVOUR of LGBT equality – see my comment on the article.
You have to remember that the HATERS are also LIARS!! They will say ANYTHING in order to keep us from getting EQUAL RIGHTS!! Only some of the 10 commandments apply to the HATERS!! (the ones about lying and killing, ….they ignore!!)
Lies, lies, lies…
@Gary, they should NOT consider it if its invalid!
Assholes
This study honestly is a sham against the LGBT. It is throwing every baseless argument that National organization of marriage and the family research council which by the way are both totally anti-gay that they can come up with. This has been totally shot down by the American Medical Association, the American Psychological Association, Multiple state Dept of Human services organizations, etc. This is a baseless lie filled article being used to try to condemn and harm the lgbt in court. I hope the Supreme court sees this what is truly is a big fat sham!
Everything in this article is invalid, especially considering every argument in this article has already been denied or refuted publicly by multiple organizations that are neutral on this issue!
have the president make it inadmissible in any court decision. Censor this report. The government censors enough stuff already who will care?
Nobody’s perfect, but we let everyday, normal people get married and procreate.
The problem, Karen, is that marriage has nothing to do with procreation, and vice versa.
@Karen, define NORMAL….you? I think not.
Why are you on this post Karen? It’s a positive post for LGBTQ. Shouldn’t you watching Faux News?
One more ting Karen you procreating make me nauseous.
And…sorry couldn’t resist…. Keep your COLON out of my business.
so you are against letting trans people be themselves different from their born body?? So you are okay with destroying gay families even when they are actually better for children then heterosexual parents who actually have a higher divorce rate than gay parents have?? Do You think that heterosexual parents have a broader understanding of different issues than gay parents have?? Do you think that heterosexual parents are going to be better support for their children then gay parents have ?? so wrong! every point is actually in more favor for gay families than heterosexual families!
oh and not every parent group gay or straight wants to have actual procreation!! Not every family wants to have children so why should we punish those couples that just want to get married even if they don’t want children. Its about love not sexual issues!
oh one more thing I want to know how is someone else’s gay marriage hurting your marriage?? Oh wait its not its their life not yours!! If you don’t like it don’t participate but they should have the right to marry and love who they want. It will not affect your marriage so therefore there really should be no reason to be against letting someone else get married!