[US] "Why the Regnerus gay parenting study matters" by David Lampo

What do opponents of gay rights and same-sex marriage (SSM) do when they have no credible scientific evidence that heterosexual couples are better at parenting than same sex couples? They make stuff up, which is exactly what social scientist Mark Regnerus from the University of Texas did two years ago in a now-infamous “study” published in Social Science Research. The study matters, but not for the reasons its supporters claim.

Unlike most academic studies, carried out under rigorous, objective standards and then peer-reviewed, this one was bought and paid for by anti-gay conservatives at the Witherspoon Institute, a rightwing research institute in Princeton, New Jersey. They paid him $695,000 to conduct a study they hoped would prove that gays shouldn’t be permitted to marry because they don’t make good parents. The conclusions of the study were reached even before it began: children with gay parents don’t do as well as children raised by “traditional” couples.

Read More