Defender of anti-gay parenting study has history of distorting science

Stanton

Mark Regenrus' faulty study on gay parenting has gained a new defender. But one should ask is it a defender which would help its credibility:

 . . . analyst Glenn Stanton of Focus on the Family paints a different picture of the professor and his work.

"Professor Regnerus is an imminently good scholar -- very careful, very thoughtful," Stanton asserts. "I've read his study. He bends over backwards to really try to be measured … thoughtful and fair with the data. He doesn't slam anybody; he doesn't implicate anybody."

So the family analyst is shocked that the university would undertake this investigation based on one letter from a homosexual activist blogger. "We do need to understand that it's not scholars complaining about that and making that charge; it's one gay activist blogger who is," Stanton notes. "And unfortunately, the University of Texas at Austin kowtowed to that request."

That's the crux of Stanton's defense - "Professor Regnerus' study isn't faulty because it's really really good and Regnerus is a really, really, really nice guy."

It shouldn't surprise anyone that Stanton can't offer a suitable defense of Regnerus' study. Though Focus on the Family anoints Stanton as an "expert," he himself a history of getting into trouble for distorting scientific work in his attempt to denigrate the gay community. In March 2008,  he claimed that there’s a “clear consensus” among anthropologists that “A family is a unit that draws from the two types of humanity, male and female.”

However, those with expertise in such matters vehemently disagreed with this claim.

The American Anthropological Association in particular wrote a letter to Focus on the Family blasting Stanton for his error, calling it a gross misrepresentation of the position of the anthropological community on gay marriage.

This year, he was called out by Think Progress for distorting one study to oppose marriage equality. And then Equality Matters, another site, refuted his attempt to attack a pro-gay parenting study.

I had a personal discussion with him (which I posted online and you can read here) taking him to task for citing a fictional anti-gay term - gay bowel syndrome - to denigrate the gay community in a piece he wrote. His defense of using the term says a lot more about his bias than his alleged expertise.

Basically it comes down to this - Glenn T. Stanton defending any study against claims of distortions is like a rabid wolf defending another wolf from Little Red Riding Hood.