Box Turtle Bulletin
News and commentary about the anti-gay lobby“Now you must raise your children up in a world where that union of man and box turtle is on the same legal footing as man and wife…”
News and commentary about the anti-gay lobbyJune 10th, 2012
Deseret News in Salt Lake City this morning published a lengthy 2,100-word article on Mark Regnerus’s study of adult children of parents In same-sex relationships, making it their top story this morning. Not only did Deseret News find no flaws in the study (Surprise!), they even made it the subject of an editorial saying that “family structure counts” in the childhood development. “Those findings,” the editorial reads, “if true, are significant because in the legal battles over same-sex marriage it has been largely accepted that there is no discernable (sic) difference between the outcomes for children of heterosexual parents and the children of gay parents.”
But are those findings true? Anyone who has an understanding of the design of experiments would look at the study and see its obvious flaws. Deseret News, unsurprisingly, saw no flaws, nor did any of the experts they contacted to comment on it. The one person in a position to be critical of the study could not comment on it because Deseret News refused to show a copy of it to him, saying they were honoring an embargo of that study. Unfortunately, all the other commenters Deseret News interviewed who applauded the study were privy to what the study said. They weren’t restrained by the embargo.
I think you can see what’s happening. Robert George is a senior fellow at the Whitherspoon Institute, which provided $695,000 for this study. He also sits on the board of the Bradley Foundation, which provided an additional $90,000. George also just happens to be a member of the Deseret News Editorial Advisory Board. The man gets around. That’s not to say that Robert George is the man responsible for all of this, but I do think it’s safe to say that there will be a massive media campaign orchestrated around this study.
Update: The Washington Times also has a laudatory article, although it’s considerably shorter. Again, no voices are available to intelligently discuss the study. “Jennifer Chrisler, executive director of the Family Equality Council, declined to comment on the studies, which she had not seen.” [Emphasis added.] Come on! What’s with the secrecy?
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Dante
June 10th, 2012
Polish your analysis, complete it if you feel it is unfinished – and submit it at HuffPost. If you can’t get a foothold there, get Signorile to raise the issue.
The timing sure is interesting – as if certain parties wanted to pre-skew the discussion of this study.
Neon Genesis
June 10th, 2012
And the president of the Whiterspoon Institute is also a board member of the National Organization for Marriage and the Bradley Foundation has a long history of donating to right wing conservative think tanks like the Heritage Foundation.
Steve
June 10th, 2012
So much for Mormons trying to play nice. Their current PR campaign isn’t fooling anyone.
If this had been a pro-gay study, they’d have immediately lined up half a dozen anti-gay groups to provide the usual token opposing point of view.
Hunter
June 10th, 2012
The secrecy is simply because they don’t want to have anyone in a position to dispute the study until they’ve had a chance to tout it far and wide.
You can bet it will be showing up in newsletters and e-mail alerts from all the usual suspects, probably before it’s actually published.
Reed
June 11th, 2012
^ what Dante said.
This seems to be a new generation of specious “research.”
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