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NARTH Exports Their Political Agenda Overseas

Jim Burroway

January 26th, 2007

NARTH’s leadership may be poised to change, but it looks like its political activism will go unchecked — along with its penchant for misusing research. In this latest example, NARTH President-elect Dean Byrd flew all the way across the pond, exporting American-style anti-gay rhetoric to Yorkshire:

An employment tribunal in Yorkshire has heard evidence from an American academic who claims that placing children with same-sex couples damages them.

Former magistrate Andrew McClintock is claiming the Constitutional Affairs department were acting unlawfully by not allowing him to opt out of ruling on cases where gay and lesbians were seeking to adopt children…

The tribunal heard evidence yesterday from Dean Byrd, who is a prominent promoter of so-called conversion therapy as a “cure” for homosexuality. Dr Byrd told the tribunal:

“The most reputable scientists would agree that the research on children raised by same-sex couples is in its infancy,” according to The Yorkshire Post. “However, in spite of the many flaws in the very limited pool of rigorous studies, there appears to be an emerging theme. Children raised by same-sex couples exhibit poor outcomes not so dissimilar to those raised by divorced heterosexual parents.”

What Dr. Byrd neglects to mention is that these studies compare children who had experienced divorce and were raised by same-sex parents to children who had experienced divorce and were raised by opposite-sex parents. The reason their outcomes are “not so dissimilar to those raised by divorced heterosexual parents” is obvious: both groups of children had experienced divorce.

When you understand the nature of the research, it appears that when children are raised by same-sex parents, their outcomes are quite similar to their counterparts raised by heterosexual couples. The sexuality of their parents does not show up as a factor.

But none of this has anything to do with parents who adopt children, which is what this case is about. Perhaps Dr. Byrd believes children are better off in foster care than they would be in permanent homes with parents who love them. Unfortunately for him, there is no research on which he could make that sort of claim, so he went with other research which is irrelevant to the case.

NARTH bills itself as an association of scientific and mental health professionals while distorting research to advance a political agenda. And despite this change in leadership, it appears that they will continue to use their cover as dispassionate professionals to the detriment of gays and lesbians — and to the detriment of children who need good homes.

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