Godly "Christians" Continue to Use Lies and False Research Against Gays

Christofascists continue to lie about gay parenting

As America ponders how and why a young Muslim couple could have been motivated to go on a shooting rampage, godly Christians continue to use false "research" and "science" to try to justify their ongoing religious based jihad against LGBT citizens. Poisonous, twisted religious belief in both case justify violence and deliberate lies and denigration of others.  Both apparent reactions against modernity and religious tolerance.  Both stemming from "holy books" that laud murder and mayhem and genocide.  In addition to a massive gun confiscation program, perhaps we need copies of the Bible and Koran to be collected and burned.  Both books are the source of much hate and evil.  But back to the Christofascist lie campaign against gays.  Despite the fact that EVERY legitimate medical and mental health association in America have concluded that gay parenting is just as healthy and supportive of child rearing as heterosexual parenting, the Christofascist persist in claims that gay parents are bad for children.  A column in the Los Angeles Times looks at the knowingly false campaign of deliberate lies.  Here are excerpts:

Now that the Supreme Court has found a constitutional right to marry for same-sex couples, it seems logical that the parallel national debate over same-sex parenting might also be over. After all, the two issues were proxies for each other. Social conservatives had argued that marriage equality would increase the number of motherless or fatherless households, a climate they argued was bad for kids. Once gay and lesbian couples could marry — strengthening their parental ties — their opponents would seem to have less room to challenge their right to be parents.

Yet the battle continues. In Utah last month, a judge ordered a baby girl removed from her foster home because the couple parenting her were lesbians. (He later rescinded the order and passed the case to another judge.) In Kansas, conservative state senators are pushing a bill to pay straight — but not gay — couples to be foster parents. In Texas and Alabama, state authorities are refusing to allow or recognize some adoptions by gays and lesbians. And in Nebraska and Mississippi, advocates were forced to mount court challenges to undo laws restricting the ability of same-sex couples to adopt or foster.

One of the primary justifications invoked for limiting gay parental rights is “science.” . . . . But a closer look shows that what is being cited as “science” in these situations is anything but. In fact, flawed scholarship is being used as a smokescreen to create the illusion of legitimate debate where none exists.

We have identified 77 studies that address the well-being of children with gay or lesbian parents. Seventy-three of them find that such children face no disadvantages from having gay or lesbian parents. The studies used a wide range of methodologies, many relying on small sampling pools but some on nationally representative data. The aggregate result is an overwhelming scholarly consensus that having a gay parent causes no harm, one reason that every major professional organization that deals with child welfare opposes discriminating against LGBT families.

As to the outlier studies, all share the same fatal flaw. At most a handful of the children who were studied were actually raised by same-sex parents; . . . . So in the end, the outlier studies don't tell us anything about same-sex parenting; they just tell us what's long been known: Family stress and disruption are bad for kids, while stable ties are good for them.

In 2014, the outlier research was presented in court in defense of Michigan's ban on same-sex marriage. Federal Judge Bernard A. Friedman wasn't buying it. He singled out Mark Regnerus, a sociologist from the University of Texas and one of the outlier researchers, for a scalding rebuke. Evidence had been presented that Regnerus' research was not only underwritten by a group opposed to same-sex marriage, but that close collaboration between funder and researcher had undercut its scholarly independence: “The funder clearly wanted a
specific result and Regnerus obliged,” wrote Friedman in overturning the Michigan ban . . . .

[T]he authors of the outlier studies are substituting ideological beliefs for scientific accuracy . . . 

When a judge in Utah or legislators in Kansas ignore solid scholarship and cite flawed research instead, it's nothing but a rear-guard attack, a quest to block or roll back LGBT progress. For some conservatives, the end of the debate just creates more reason to fight, even if it means weakening ties between parents and their children. 

Conservatives Praise Severely Flawed Study About Same-Sex Parents

Dishonest "researcher" Donald Sullins

This blog has noted a number of times the hugely flawed gay parenting "study" issued by Mark Regnerus.  Indeed, the study was so flawed that Regnerus' own department trashed both Regnerus and his anti-gay report that was funded by right wing anti-gay groups,  Now, Donald Paul Sullins, a Catholic priest and sociology professor at Catholic University of America who is also a fellow of the Marriage and Religion Research Institute, a project of Family Research Council, a certified hate group, has authored a similar study that seeming decided the anti-gay findings it wanted to derive and then manipulated data and facts to purportedly support the preordained conclusions. As I have said many, many times, no one lies more often or more deliberately than the "godly folk."   Both Regnerus and now Sullins need to be expelled from the faculties of their respective universities.   Think Progress looks at this latest religious extremist propaganda smear piece.  Here are highlights:

Conservatives are excitedly promoting a new study that supposedly reveals negative outcomes for the children of same-sex parents. Like the infamously flawed Mark Regnerus study rushed out two years ago, the new study seems timed to impact the Supreme Court’s upcoming consideration of marriage equality for same-sex couples. It suffers, however, from some of the same flaws and biases as Regnerus’ study, and doesn’t actually support the argument against marriage equality that it tries to make.

The new study comes from Donald Paul Sullins, a Catholic priest and sociology professor at Catholic University of America. Sullins is a fellow of the Marriage and Religion Research Institute, a project of the anti-LGBT Family Research Council, and a Fourth Degree member of the Knights of Columbus, which has funneled millions of dollars into fighting marriage equality over the past decade. In 2010, he co-wrote a study suggesting that female homosexuality was somehow connected to growing up in a broken home, and when he has written about same-sex marriage, he uses scare quotes around the word “marriage.”

Sullins conducted an analysis of data from the National Health Interview Survey (NHIS) that had been collected from 1997-2013. He concluded that information about the 512 same-sex parents identified in the study demonstrates that their children have more emotional problems compared to couples raised by their biological different-sex couples.

One of the first major flaws, however, is the fact that Sullins has no information about whether the same-sex couples were actually married. As he notes, “Almost all opposite-sex parents who are raising joint biological offspring are in intact marriages, but very few, if any, same-sex parents were married during the period under observation.”

No conclusions can actually be drawn about the impacts of legalizing same-sex marriage because the study, by its own admission, collected no data about same-sex marriage or its effect on children. 

Regnerus himself provides an overview of the research. In his attempt to defend it, however, he in turn reveals that it also has the very same flaws as his own study.

As a vehicle for opposing same-sex marriage, the study severely lacks integrity, as its political positions don’t jibe with its data.  

Conservatives praise these studies for their large samples, eagerly highlighting their negative results while ignore the distortions required to arrive at them. A recent large study from Australia with a similarly-sized pool of same-sex parents who had actually raised children together as couples found that the children have quite positive outcomes. Indeed, there are ample studies that consistently justify the medical community’s support for same-sex couples to have equal access to marriage and joint adoption for their families. As Regnerus himself pointed out, when researchers don’t conflate same-sex families with unstable homes, the results are positive.

It is also noteworthy that Sullins is a 4th Degree Knight of Columbus, an organization that has consistently supported bishops and cardinals who covered up for and abetted predator priests and threatened and intimidated abuse victims and their families.   The K of C was founded to protect widows and children but over the years its main focus has been to support the corrupt Church hierarchy and throw children under the bus. 

63 Texas Republicans Sign Brief Saying Gay Marriage Will Lead To Incest and Pedophilia

Texas Conservative Coalition marriage brief

If the gathering in Ames, Iowa mentioned in the last post doesn't do enough to convince you that the Republican Party has become a sectarian party, then pay attention to Texas Republicans, 63 of whom just signed onto a brief filed with the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals that alleges that legal same sex marriage will lead to the legalization of incest and pedophilia.  Yes, you read that right.  A piece in the Huffington Post looks at the batshitery and shameless self-prostitution of these Republicans who, other than the dictates of the Christofascists they pander to, have nothing to back up their claims.  Here are article highlights:

In support of Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott’s efforts to reinstate the state’s ban on same-sex marriage, more than 60 Texas lawmakers signed an amicus brief Monday arguing that recognition of gay marriage could lead to the legalization of incest, pedophilia and polygamy. 

Filed with the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, 63 members of the Texas Conservative Coalition, the state legislature’s conservative caucus, advanced the notion that legalizing same-sex marriage could provide legal justification for the recognition of various moral taboos, including incest and pedophilia.

“The district court broadened the definition of the ‘existing right to marry’ as one that includes the right of people to ‘select the partners of their choosing’ for marriage, without regard to sex,” the brief contends. “If the right to select ‘partners of their choosing’ is the criterion used to invoke marriage as a fundamental right, then marriage restrictions on age, polygamy, and consanguinity are also ripe for challenge.”

As first reported by Lone Star Q, signatories include the GOP nominee for lieutenant governor, state Sen. Dan Patrick, Texas House Speaker Pro Tempore Dennis Bonnen (R) and state Sen. Ken Paxton, the Republican nominee for attorney general. 

“Another ground cited by supporters of Texas’s marriage laws and subsequently dismissed by the district court is that recognition of same-sex marriage ‘could lead to the recognition of bigamy, incest, pedophilia, and group marriage,’” the brief continued. “As already discussed in this brief, restrictions on marriage relating to these moral considerations remain valid. Thus, the goal of actively trying to prevent those practices from becoming valid is entirely rational public policy."

While the Republican lawmakers concede that “recognition of pedophilia or other morally reprehensible actions” may not actually be the “logical next step” following marriage equality, they maintain that legislators enacted Texas’ marriage laws "with the intention of supporting marriage arrangements that they believe support valid goals related to those concerns.”

The friend-of-court brief comes one week after Abbott’s office filed an appellants brief urging the appeals court to reverse U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia’s February decision, which deemed the state's same-sex marriage ban in violation of the 14th Amendment’s due-process and equal-protection clauses.

Not surprisingly, the brief cites the discredited "research" of Mark Regnerus which has been disavowed by even his own department at the University of Texas.
 

Completely Descredited "Researcher" Paul Cameron Addresses Russian Duma

If one wants to truly understand the lengths American Christofascists are going to in their quest to export anti-gay hate and lies overseas, events in Russia continue to be most educational.  No lie and untruth seems to be too much and shockingly Vladimir Putin and the Russian Orthodox Church seem only too happy to parade outright liars, charlatans and frauds "experts" to legitimize their anti-gay jihad.  Things have now reached a new low as the Russian Duma - the Russian equivalent to Congress - have welcomed Paul Cameron as a "researcher" on homosexuality.  As long time readers know, Cameron was thrown out of every legitimate association to which he was a member over a quarter of a century ago.  Why?  Because he deliberately falsified research results and deliberately skewed his "research" to reach predetermined results to slander and denigrate gays.  In one court case, a federal judge opined that Cameron was a fraud.  The Bilerico Project looks at Cameron's appearance before the Duma.  Here are highlights:

Want to know how dangerously, rabidly anti-LGBT the climate in Russia is getting? This one report from BuzzFeed encapsulates it in perfect, chilling detail:

Russia's parliament invited an American anti-gay psychologist whose work has been widely discredited to give expert testimony where he suggested that a third of LGBTs support pedophilia, according to a participant in the meeting.

Family Research Institute founder Paul Cameron, who has been censured by the American Psychological Association and the American Sociological Association for distorting statistics in efforts to block LGBT rights, spoke at a Duma roundtable on "family values," according to tweets from lawmaker Alexander Sidyakin.

BuzzFeed translates this tweet as follows: "[Cameron] cited statistics of a survey of homosexualists: 27% engage in sex with children from 15 to 18, 15% with children under 15; 32% think such sex is OK."

Of course, there is absolutely no legitimacy to these "statistics," or any other "facts" cited by this "researcher." Cameron was kicked out of both the American Psychological Association and the American Sociological Association for peddling virulently anti-gay junk science; the Southern Poverty Law Center calls him an "infamous anti-gay propagandist" and lists his organization, the Family Research Institute, as a hate group.

Cameron is best known for the thoroughly debunked canard about the supposed "health risks" of homosexuality -- you know, the one about how gay men, on average, live only half as long as their heterosexual counterparts. It's a lie that's been discredited for years, but it still surfaces in legislative testimony, city council hearings, and public comment forums across the country. Cameron's bogus "research" is also still cited by major anti-LGBT hate groups like the American Family Association, the Concerned Women for America, and until recently, the Family Research Council.

He's also, to put it simply, a crackpot. In an appearance on a Christian talk radio show last year, Cameron made the wild-eyed claim that "the long term goal of the homosexual movement is to get every little boy to grab his ankles and every little girl to give it a try." He also told nationally-syndicated progressive radio host David Pakman that he knows President Obama to be gay, the heinous crimes of Jerry Sandusky were caused by American acceptance of homosexuality, and that over half the children in Afghanistan and Pakistan are molested by their teachers because of the "fair degree of prominence" homosexuality has in those societies.

Seriously. And this is the man Russian parliamentarians are consulting as an "expert" on homosexuality. If that doesn't send chills up your spine, I don't know what will.

Russia wants to be regarded as a world leader and super power.  Allowing charlatans like Cameron appear before the nation's highest legislative body does nothing to further this ambition.  Indeed, it makes Russia and Russians look like laughing stocks.