Regnerus: Where’s the Data You Promised?

Rob Tisinai

November 10th, 2012

When Mark Regnerus released his study on same-sex parenting gay dads and lesbian moms children with a parent who had some point had a same-sex relationship, he promised us this:

The [New Family Structure Study] data is intended to be publicly accessible and will thus be made so with minimal requirements by mid-late 2012.

I’m writing this on November 10, and 2012 is 86% done. So where’s the data?

We have ample reason to ask. According to Regnerus, his study shows the harm of raising children in same-sex households, but he’s only given us limited descriptions of the data — and even that meager bit is enough to reveal that (by his own standards!) his research has little to say about same-sex parenting.

Regnerus has taken a lot of crap for this study, and taken even more for the way he’s framed it to the public. A true scientist’s best defense is to release his data and declare, See — I am vindicated! Failing to do so — especially after promising to do so — tells us something altogether different.

So, Professor Mark Regnerus:  Where’s the data?

UPDATE: Many thanks to StraightGrandmother, who has pointed us to where the data will be available. Can’t wait to dig in! (yes, i’m a nerd)

StraightGrandmother

November 10th, 2012

The data is at the University of Michigan, here
http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/icpsrweb/ICPSR/index.jsp
Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research. This organization accepts and maintains the raw data from different research projects. It is like a storage house.

I spoke with the technician, his name is Arun, who accepts the income data and then he gets it into their system.

Arun told me that to access the data you would have to use some widely used software that apparently most Sociology Researchers use. You also have to be a member of the Storage organization, he said most Universities are members.

I asked Arun if he could do a data dump just into Excel Spreadsheets once he got done with his installation process. And if I could buy that. There are not that many records, Regenerus started supposedly with 15,000 and the filtered it back to 3,000 records. Of course there are subsidiary tables, for example the calendaring data, which need to then be joined with an individual record (parent/child tables) but still we are not talking that many records here. I would upload the Excel Workshhets into Tables in Access, is how I plan on working with the data. Although Arun did not give me a definitive answer (I called out of the blue and he was kind of on the spot) my sense is that he will do this, make the data available for purchase (I emphasized low cost) in another format.

I emphasized to Arun how important this data is and asked him to prioritize it as he said it takes him about 6 weeks to get the data into their system. I can’t remember when I called but I would guess about a month now. Rob PLEASE do call Arun and ask for the same thing I asked for. He needs to know that many people are interested in accessing this data and we should not be chilled because of cost. The more phone calls to Arun requesting the data the better!

StraightGrandmother

November 10th, 2012

And THANK YOU Rob for keeping this on your radar and writing about it. Hope you call Arun.

Rob Tisinai

November 10th, 2012

Thanks, SG! How did you learn this?

Truthspew

November 10th, 2012

Interesting – StraightGrandmother if you need help with Access let me know. I’ve become more than proficient with databases over the years.

Regan DuCasse

November 10th, 2012

SG, you are something else! You have to be one of the smartest, most determined women ever!
LOVE you!
And thank you so much for doing such good work on this.

xo

StraightGrandmother

November 10th, 2012

Well…. I sent an e-mail to the Department Chair at University of Texas Austin complaining about Regnerus bogarting the data, this way he was insulating himself from criticism. A few days later Regnerus wrote on his blog that he turned the data over to the University of Michigan. I am sure that is sheer coincidence, right? I still look daily for anything on Regnerus and to connect the dots. This is still very vital as this is before our Supreme Court as BLAG has cited this “research” in their briefs on the DOMA cases, so I still see it as a deep threat.

I hope you are reading Scott Rose’s articles at the New Civil Rights Movement as he continues to discover and expose.

Regan, I have tired previously to get in touch with you. My e-mail address is my forum name and then at Google Mail.

TampaZeke

November 10th, 2012

StraightGrandmother is my HERO!

I want to be her grandson in my next life!

Rob Tisinai

November 10th, 2012

It’s pretty much official: StraightGrandmother rocks.

sue jeffers

November 10th, 2012

i’m not sure where i downloaded things from, but the codebook, research design etc. were with the dataset. think i’ll use it somehow in my quantitative research course next semester. the dataset, if i remember, is a mess as far as formatting for any statistics program goes. it is all stored on my home computer and i could zip it up and send it to you if you’d like.

StraightGrandmother

November 11th, 2012

Tampa Zeke, you are ALL my family. It is my Privilege to know YOU.

Sue Jeffers, why yes, yes, yes, please do send me whatever work you have on the codebook and anything else. Since you have done so much work on it perhaps you will be interested in reading the following reports I created. They are hard to read but I can’t help that it’s very detailed work. It is really pathetic that Regnerus can’t add which these reports show.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/105616753/NFSS-Regnerus-Errors

http://www.scribd.com/doc/105614489/NFSS-Rebuttal-Report-Non-Disclosure-of-Records-Removed

http://www.scribd.com/doc/105617392/NFSS-Regnerus-Graphs-of-Origional-Report

http://www.scribd.com/doc/105618148/NFSS-Graphsof-Regnerus-Rebuttal-Report

And just to round things out here is the famous Sarantakos research that no one ever can get their hands on the full report. I found out that Sarantakos is very ill so I doubt if he’ll complain. I want to thank Ben a frequent commenter here for getting me this report, it wasn’t easy.
http://www.scribd.com/doc/104377190/Sarantakos-Study

Sue J it was a REAL PIA to take all of the tables in both Regnerus’ reports and put them into Excel. I can send you these if you would like. This will save you hours upon hours upon hours. You did some work and I did some work, and what you did I didn’t do, and what I did you didn’t do, so it would be great to share.

It really makes me mad that the Original report that Regnerus made is freely available, but the criticisms you have to pay for. + Regnerus’ non peer reviewed rebuttal report is behind a paywall also. This is contrary to what the Editor of the Journal Social Science Promised me. Dr. Wright Promised me that all criticisms would be available on line for free, just like the original report is available for free. So since Dr. Wroght promised me this would be the case, here then is Regnerus’ rebuttal report

http://www.scribd.com/doc/112849838/NFSS-Commentary-RegnerusResponse

Second objection letter signed by over 200 leading scholars and Medical Professionals including the President at the time of the American Sociological Association Dr. Erik Olin Wright

http://www.scribd.com/doc/112850061/NFSS-Commentary-GaryGatesRebuttalLetter2Editor

Commentary by California State Sociologist Barret
http://www.scribd.com/doc/112850472/NFSS-Commentarty-Barett

Commentary by Sociologist Massey of Princeton
http://www.scribd.com/doc/112850572/NFSS-Commentary-Massey

Dr. James Wright the Editor PROMISED me these were all going to be FREE access, so I am making them FREE access, a promise is a promise :)

StraightGrandmother

November 11th, 2012

I should have maybe captioned this link better. Regnerus responded to his critics by reslicing the data (he removed 400 records but doesn’t give a good explanation of why he did that). He wrote this NON PEER REVIEWED paper to answer his critics. The Journal Social Science Research published this NON PEER REVIEWED paper in November 2012.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/112849838/NFSS-Commentary-RegnerusResponse

Jay

November 12th, 2012

I need to add my gratitude to StraightGrandmother. She is inspiring and tenacious. Awesome.

Jimmy Green

November 12th, 2012

Anyone else catch Regnerus latest at National Review?

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/333193/lesbian-mothers-children-mark-regnerus

Similarly, he has been posting snide passive-aggressive articles on an evangelical sociology blog constantly reinforcing the idea that his research “disproves” all prior “pro-gay” research?

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/blackwhiteandgray/2012/11/when-data-go-bad/#comment-16307

This has been his modus operandi from the beginning – nuance and equivocation in the mainstream media, while playing the noble scientist and religious martyr in right wing outlets.

Disgusting….

StraightGrandmother

November 12th, 2012

Jimmy Green is right.No jimmy I had not seen that article at the National Review so thanks for bringing us that, I’ll go check it out.

Jimmy Green

November 12th, 2012

Check out Regnerus and Yancey petulant and completely evasive reply to my comment on their blog…

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/blackwhiteandgray/2012/11/when-data-go-bad/#comments

They have the Noble Scholar/Christian Martyr routine down to a science. I love the comment from Regnerus that he is so busy doing his work that he can’t be bothered to worry about how his research is used. He also had the gall to compare Focus on the Family to the HRC!

And then Yancey, an African-American evangelical, pipes in that his work has been cited by White Supremists so basically piss off.

Arg….I am convinced now that Regnerus is just as corrupt and political as Maggie, George, etc. He just makes more of an effort to flatter pseudo-liberals like Saletan at Slate but the result is the same.

The one bit of satisfaction is that I think he is really feeling the heat from the academic community and maybe did not realize how big the blowback would be from so blatabtly violating scientific norms.

sue jeffers

November 13th, 2012

StraightGrandmother – my email is suejeffers@fbirecords.com. i have access to most academic journal articles thru the university and can probably help getting them without shelling out cash. Things like the NARTH in house publication- that research circle jerk they pretend is peer reviewed- are not included unfortunately.

sue jeffers

February 5th, 2013

http://www.icpsr.umich.edu/icpsrweb/ICPSR/studies/34392?q=mark+regnerus&permit%5B0%5D=AVAILABLE

Not sure how long this has been uploaded, or if this is a good link outside of my library acct.

Darina

February 5th, 2013

Sue, your link works just fine.
And the files are accessible even if you just go to the icpsr site and type “Mark Regnerus” in the “Find Data” field.

The questionnaire of the studyis also available online here: http://www.prc.utexas.edu/nfss/documents/NFSS-Survey-Instrument.pdf I was told about that today by a Russian user on LiveJournal, imagine that! It seems that the study is already being cited as legitimate by Russian sources (and the misconception about it has recently reached my native Bulgaria too).

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