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Social scientists who have done research on gay and lesbian families say religious fundamentalists are deliberately distorting their work to make the case that heterosexual married couples provide the best environment for rearing children.
During a news conference Feb. 26, they specifically accused Dr. James Dobson, head of Focus on the Family, of misconstruing research in a Time magazine opinion column last December. Reacting to the news that Mary Cheney, daughter of the vice president, and partner Heather Poe are having a baby, Dobson cited the research of experts to make the case that married straights are the best parents. Those experts have since said they were mortified that their work was so distorted.
Dobson wrote that Dr. Kyle Pruett, a professor of child psychiatry at the Yale University School of Medicine, stated in a book that fathers are "critically important" to a child’s development because "fathers do not mother."
After Time published the Dobson article, Pruett criticized the misinterpretation of his research, saying, "When people start spinning science you have to respond. Journalism used to handle this, but not anymore. So it’s bounced back to become increasingly the responsibility of the people doing the research."
Dobson also cited Dr. Carol Gilligan, an educational psychologist, in writing in his Time piece that "mothers tend to stress sympathy, grace and care to their children, while fathers accent justice, fairness and duty. Moms give a child a sense of hopefulness; dads provide a sense of right and wrong and its consequences." Gilligan later contested Dobson’s use of her research in a video statement posted on YouTube.com.
Soulforce (www.soulforce.org), a national GLBT civil rights and social justice organization that hosted the Feb. 26 news conference, said Dobson’s column is part of a fundamentalist Christian strategy to make gay and lesbian families an issue in the 2008 presidential election, just as they did same-sex marriage in 2004.
Soulforce asked that as the election cycle approaches mainstream media vet and verify, not just accept at face value, assertions that gays and lesbians do not make good parents.
"An alarming disinformation campaign in America we believe is destroying families by actively distorting, cherry-picking and misinterpreting social-science research," Jeff Lutes, Soulforce executive director, said. "The public believes mistakenly that research supports banning gays and lesbians from marrying, fostering, and adopting."
Dr. Judith Stacey, a New York University sociologist, is one of the researchers who contend that their published work has been misused, not only by Focus on the Family, but by many newspaper columnists and in court cases.
"It is intuitive that children are best raised by a mother and father, but that is not what the research shows at all," Stacey said at the news conference. All the studies on single lesbian or partnered lesbians show that their children do as well as heterosexual parents, she reported. On average, children of lesbians "have some small advantages over children raised by heterosexual married couples because [the lesbian parents] are a bit older and more educated," Stacey added. "The major problem they have is social stigma and discrimination."
A distortion fundamentalists make is that there are thousands of studies on the topic, which the sociologist said is not true. While the amount of published research is considerable smaller, virtually none supports Dobson’s contention. Stacey said that whenever she is asked to debate someone who takes the position against gay families, it is rarely with a research expert, "because it’s extremely difficult--next to impossible--to find a researcher or scholar publishing on the other side or who is even sympathetic." Dr. Clinton Anderson, director of the American Psychological Association’s Office of Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Concerns, corroborated the lack of research supporting the assertion that gays and lesbians don’t make good parents and added, "We have a very strong opposition to public policy that discriminates against groups when there is no justification for it."
Dr. Brian Dew of the American Counseling Association, said he agreed that there’s no research supporting the fundamentalist position. He also reported that its members, particularly school counselors, have witnessed the impact of what he called "homo-prejudice" on the lives of children. Dew quoted Kevin Jennings, executive director of the Gay, Lesbian, Straight Education Network, in saying, "The hallways of our schools are the most homophobic places in America."
School counselors are reporting that while children of gay and lesbian parents are upset, sad and angry after hearing homophobic remarks, so are their friends and gay-supportive classmates.
The American Psychiatric Association has deplored discrimination against GLBTs since it declassified homosexuality as a mental disorder in 1973 and issued a statement supporting the right of same-sex couples to adopt and co-parent children in 2002. Dr. Serena Volpp, who chairs its Committee on Gay, Lesbian and Bisexual Issues, said numerous studies over the last 30 years consistently demonstrate that "optimal development for children is based on emotional attachments and committed and nurturing adults," regardless of the sexual orientation of their parents.
Dr. Jean Quam, dean of the School of Social Work at the University of Minnesota, is a National Association of Social Workers board member and chairs its National Committee on Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Issues. Quam told journalists that there is "no relationship between a child’s cognitive development, well being or happiness" and the sexual orientation of their parents.
Wayne Besen, executive director of Truth Wins Out (www.truthwinsout.org), a think tank and educational organization that counters right-wing disinformation campaigns and debunks the ex-gay myth, said it has launched www.RespectMyResearch.org as a forum for social scientists to speak out to stop what he called manipulation of science for political gain. The web site contains video interviews with scientists who say Focus on the Family has misstated their findings and letters asking Dobson to either stop using their research or accurately report it. He encouraged journalists to use the web site to check facts when reporting on the issue. .
Besen mentioned another example of how Dobson has distorted the facts. He phoned Dr. Elisabeth Saewyk of University of British Columbia after Focus on the Family reported that her study showed lesbians committed suicide at a higher rate because no one told them they don’t have to be lesbians. "She was shocked," Besen said.
He also reported that Soulforce and Truth Wins Out could not find a single researcher that was not "absolutely floored" by the misrepresentations.
Lutes and Besen asserted that Dobson and other religious fundamentalists, such as Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council and preacher Jerry Falwell, have lost all credibility. "It is important to check out every fact they say," Besen told the journalists. "If they can’t prove it, don’t use it."
Soulforce’s Lutes said a major challenge in countering fundamentalists’ misstatements about gays and lesbians is that they "are very skilled at narrowcasting. They can access millions of like-minded folks with Christian radio that many Americans don’t listen to. They can generate a culture of fear and use it to light up those switchboards in Washington."
Besen added, "They don’t have to be responsible to anyone as long as their money is flowing." Source: edgeboston.com |
