Peter Sprigg of the Family Research Council just can't stop engaging in duplicitious tactics

Gay and Lesbian Couples Monitor Same Sex Marriage Vote in Maryland Legislature: MyFoxDC.com

I caught this piece from TeachtheFacts, an excellent organization in Maryland.

"Our friend," Peter Sprigg of the Family Research Council was on a local Maryland Fox News program being interviewed recently about the marriage equality bill which just passed  and is now headed for a vote in the Senate. He was pitted against DC Metro PFLAG member David Fishback.

Of course I am going to be accused by some folks of being biased, but Sprigg comes across as meandering and totally clueless on several points, especially when he talks about the "ideal" family environment for children. He says - and these are his words - "the ideal family form for children is to be raised by their own biological mother and father who are committed to one another  in a lifetime marriage"

That simply illustrates the emptiness of Sprigg's argument. Not all children are raised by "their own biological mother and father." Sprigg just omitted a plethora of families.

And according to Teach the Facts, the steering of the argument into the direction of children in families didn't exactly work in Sprigg's direction:

Peter launched into one of his famous "the research shows that" speeches. Luckily, the announcer, Laura Evans, had her notes in front of her . . .

Evans comes back:

Peter, there have actually been three decades of research on this matter, the American Psychological Association has found that there is no scientific evidence that parental effectiveness is related to sexual orientation. Lesbian and gay parents are as likely, they say, as heterosexual parents to provide supportive and healthy environments for their children. What do you say to those studies, twenty-five years worth of studies?

Peter responds by criticizing the scholarship of the research.

Well, those studies, the studies that have focused specifically on gay parenting, have suffered from severe methodological difficulties, very small sample sizes, convenience sampling where they're not a truly random sample, and by not being compared with actual married biological mothers and fathers, in comparing them with for example single parents instead, so I think that we can draw very few firm conclusions from that body of research, and we should be looking instead to the much broader and much larger and much more reliable body of research on family structure in general.

You got that? Sprigg says that the studies looking at same-sex households shouldn't be considered credible because - amongst other bad explanations brought up by him - the researcher didn't compare these households to heterosexual households.

But he didn't have a problem Wednesday with using research that didn't compare the two dynamics when he published a piece in The Christian Post criticizing same-sex marriage.

Not to worry, though. Fishback answers Sprigg back rather admirably, especially pointing out that the research looking at same-sex households was peer-reviewed, i.e. looked at by other researchers before being published.

If stuff like this keeps up, I would suggest that the Family Research Council get a new "point man" to fight against marriage equality.

It's bad enough that Sprigg seems to be losing the argument, but it's worse that he just unconsciously repeats talking points as if readng a grocery list, displaying absolutely no conviction in them.

Worse for Sprigg and FRC,  but good for us.

Related post:


Peter Sprigg won't address hate group charges but will lie about same-sex households

Know Your LGBT History - All About Eve

All About Eve (1950) is one of the greatest films of all time and THE movie to watch for all of us old-school gay men.

The simple story, a Broadway actress by the name of Margo Channing (Bette Davis) who is nearly done in by an evil understudy, Eve Harrington (Anne Baxter) after her career and man, is legendary in gay circles for a myriad of reasons.

1. The cast, led by gay icon Bette Davis is top notch. And the addition of another gay icon, Marilyn Monroe before she became a huge star, only made things better.

2. The stories behind the making of this film could be a film in itself. The feud between cast members Bette Davis and Celeste Holmes, the fact that Davis was going through an ugly divorce in the middle of the film, the fact that she and co-star Gary Merrill ended up getting married after the film - after an embarrassing incident which led Merrill's wife to divorce him, Zsa Zsa Gabor coming on the set after her husband George Sanders, etc. etc.

3. The writing was also amazing and it holds up even 50 years after this film was made.

However just like another legendary gay favorite film I talked about a while back, i.e. The Women, the campy quality of All About Eve blinds us to a certain fact about one of the characters.

There has been much written about the simple fact that the character of Eve Harrington was a lesbian. This was something which was hinted at throughout the entire movie in certain ways. Most specifically the fact that while Harrington slept with two men in the movie and tried to seduce a third, her character was only using them to advance her career.

The only time in which she showed any affection was to her female roommate after the woman helps her in one of her escapades and in the ending where she takes in a stowaway (the open ending of the movie was hinting on the fact that the stowaway will backstab Eev like she did Channing).

Then there is the scene in which Channing confronts Eve at a party and hints on the fact that maybe Eve would like to do more than simply be her helper.

But for now, here is a scene in which Eve unsuccessfully tries to hit on Channing's boyfriend, Bill. See if you can see the subtlety in the words Bill uses when he rejects her advances:



Past Know Your LGBT History Postings:

GLAAD, Essence, and Ebony make black history and other Friday midday news briefs

Guest column by Rev. Irene Monroe: GLAAD makes history with black media - This story should get more press. It's a remarkable achievement on the parts of GLAAD and Essence and Ebony magazines.
 
VIDEO ROUND-UP: In NH, Opponents Claim Marriage Equality Would Facilitate ‘Sharia Law’ - Watch and read ONLY if you have a strong stomach and barf bag handy. The good news is that this mess totally destroys the Maggie Gallagher "stop calling us bigots because we simply want to 'protect marriage'" lie.

Don't Filter Me! - That's right. Don't keep our lgbt children away for the online sources they need.


Fischer: My Bigotry Is Absolutely Genuine - Well duuuuh!

Wikileaks Posts Cables from US Embassy in Uganda Concerning Anti-Homosexuality Bill - Just sad.

Family Research Council's 'detailed response' to SPLC's charges leave much to be desired

Tony Perkins, head of the Family Research Council

Supposedly, the Family Research Council has finally given a "detailed response" to the Southern Poverty Law Center's charges that it uses distortive tactics to demonize the lgbt community.

However, the group did not direct the answer to me or the SPLC, but allegedly to a reader of this blog. This is what the person wrote me:

I asked them for a detailed response, and the reply I received was as follows:

Dear C,

Thank you for contacting Family Research Council.

Please refer to Tony Perkins's op-ed, "Christian compassion requires the truth about harms of homosexuality" at http://www.frc.org/get.cfm?i=PV10J11 for an explanation of our motives behind opposing homosexuality.

Sincerely,

Your Friends at the Family Research Council

If this is accurate, then the Family Research Council has a very warped idea of a "detailed response."

The link is to a piece written by FRC head Tony Perkins entitled Christian compassion requires the truth about harms of homosexuality. It was published in October of last year in The Washington Post, causing a lot of consternation because it was published on National Coming Out Day AND it contained many distortions.

In the piece, Perkins complained that "homosexual activists" were "exploiting" the recent suicides of lgbt teens. He tried to make the case that homophobia didn't lead to these suicides but that homosexuality itself was a "dangerous lifestyle:"

There is an abundance of evidence that homosexuals experience higher rates of mental health problems in general, including depression. However, there is no empirical evidence to link this with society's general disapproval of homosexual conduct. In fact, evidence from the Netherlands would seem to suggest the opposite, because even in that most "gay-friendly" country on earth, research has shown homosexuals to have much higher mental health problems.

However, Media Matters for America called him out for distortions:

Perkins suggests that these tragedies are not caused by the homophobic attacks these individuals were subjected to, but rather because "homosexuals experience higher rates of mental health problems in general, including depression," and, according to Perkins, there's no "evidence to link this with society's general disapproval of homosexual conduct." Unfortunately for Perkins, the article he links to says no such thing.
 
Perkins links to a February 2002 American Psychologist article, which reported on the "results of several breakthrough studies are offering new insights on gay men, lesbians and bisexuals." While Perkins is right, "Several studies suggest that gay men, lesbians and bisexuals appear to have higher rates of some mental disorders compared with heterosexuals," he's totally wrong that these rates have nothing to do with discrimination. In fact, the article immediately goes on to report that "[d]iscrimination may help fuel these higher rates." The article reported: "In a study that examines possible root causes of mental disorders in LGB people, [Susan] Cochran [PhD] and psychologist Vickie M. Mays, PhD, of the University of California, Los Angeles, explored whether ongoing discrimination fuels anxiety, depression and other stress-related mental health problems among LGB people. The authors found strong evidence of a relationship between the two." Several other studies back up this finding.

Jim Burroway of Box Turtle Bulletin pointed out this error in Perkins's piece regarding his "evidence" from the Netherlands:

While the study’s authors notes that the Netherlands is generally more tolerant, it doesn’t mean that LGBT people there are free from anti-gay bias and stress. After all, “more tolerant” is not the same as tolerant. And as for the study’s findings, the authors offered this explanation:

The effects of social factors on the mental health status of homosexual men and women have been well documented in studies, which found a relationship between experiences of stigma, prejudice, and discrimination and mental health status. Furthermore, controlling for psychological predictors of present distress seems to eliminate differences in mental health status between heterosexual and homosexual adolescents.

Someone should tell the Family Research Council that if you are accused of distorting legitimate science, it's probably not best to lodge a defense by citing a piece you wrote which was publicly called out for distorting legitimate science.

It makes you look like a huge liar.

Related posts:

Peter Sprigg won't address hate group charges but will lie about same-sex households

Family Research Council has yet to come out with 'detailed response' against SPLC charges

Will the Family Research Council ever fulfill its promise and address SPLC's charges?

National Organization for Marriage called out AGAIN for distortive tactics

Slowly but surely, people are beginning to get hip to the homophobic sideshow known as the National Organization for Marriage.

Last week, NOM was called out by PolitiFact for spreading a false story that "gay marriage is being taught" to kindergartners in Massachusetts.

This week, the organization has been called out by Erik Hartley from The Capital newspaper in Maryland for a distorted push poll it conducted.

First, a part of NOM's press release about the results of the poll:

NEW POLL: MAJORITY OF MARYLAND VOTERS BELIEVE MARRIAGE IS ONLY ONE MAN-ONE WOMAN

By a 54-37 margin, Maryland voters believe that marriage should only be between a man and a woman, according to a new poll released today by Lawrence Research.

The poll, commissioned by the National Organization for Marriage (NOM), also found that 78% of the state’s voters believe the voters of Maryland, rather than the legislature (14%), should have the final word on the issue of whether or not to legalize same-sex marriage.

The state legislature is currently considering legislation to change the legal definition of marriage in Maryland from “a man and a woman” to “any two adults.” Supporters of traditional marriage, including NOM, the Maryland Catholic Conference, and the Association of Maryland Families, have vowed to put this proposal before the voters via Maryland’s referendum process if passed by the General Assembly. The findings of the poll indicate strong voter support for a referendum on this issue.

“The results of this poll strongly affirm that we are on the right side of Maryland voters,” said Brian Brown, President of NOM. “Not only do voters support marriage by a 17-point margin, but they reject the Legislature’s efforts to impose this without public input. We’ll continue to fight to block the current legislation push in the General Assembly, but this poll shows beyond any doubt that despite what the legislature does, the people will have the final say, and they will support marriage.”

Apparently, NOM commissioned this poll after another in January showed that the folks in Maryland in fact supports gay marriage.

NOM whined that the poll had a "misleading" question. So naturally the organization conducted some chicanery of its own. Hartley said the following:

Say you're an interest group that wants to make it seem as if the public is on your side. Just commission a poll, ask the questions a certain way and voilà! You have the poll result you wanted.

That's what an anti-gay-marriage group has just done.

After a recent Gonzales Research & Marketing Strategies poll showed most Marylanders now support same-sex marriage, the National Organization for Marriage decided it wanted a different result.

It complained that the Gonzales poll's question ("Would you favor or oppose a law in Maryland allowing same-sex couples to marry, giving them the same legal rights as heterosexual married couples in areas such as tax exemptions, inheritance and pension coverage?") was biased. A "strong, pro-gay marriage bias" was the exact wording.

So NOM asked it this way: "As far as you personally are concerned, should marriage be between a man and a woman, or should it also be available to same-sex couples?"

Hmm. Why the phrase "as far as you personally are concerned"? Perhaps to appeal to people's visceral discomfort with gay people? Note that the question does not ask about the proposed law; it asks about values -- "as far as you personally are concerned" -- and how you think the world "should" be.

That's two weeks and two times that NOM's bullshit has been called out. The third time's a charm as far as I'm concerned.

Rick Santorum hates 'santorum' and other Thursday midday news briefs

TWO Calls On Rick Santorum to Stop Whine-Fest Regarding Google Search Results - A bit vicious and a bit more coarse than I would have done, but it couldn't have happened to a MORE DESERVING guy.

FRC Promises Referendum If Maryland Approves Gay Marriage - GREAT! More lies about lgbts indoctrinating children and "teaching kindergartners about gay marriage." Get yourselves together pro-equality forces in Maryland. You know what they are going to do.

Iowa grandmother speaks in favor of marriage equality - Our biggest allies are always our family members.

Hawaii lawmakers approve civil unions for gay couples - We're almost there in Hawaii!

George Washington Carver was gay. . . and other bits of lgbt black history you probably didn't know

As we all know, February is Black History Month.  With that in mind, let's not forget those lgbts of color excelled in entertaiment, science, and civil rights, such as the legendary scientist George Washington Carver.

Unfortunately so many in the African-American community want to overlook us and they are aided and abetted by those religious right figures and organizations who seek to drive a wedge between both the lgbt and black communities.

The following names, taken from BlackedOUT History should remind us that no wedge can eliminate truth.

Name	Date-of-Birth Date-of-Death	Profession	Quote
Alvin Ailey Jr.	Jan. 5, 1931 Dec. 1, 1989	Choreographer	“I am trying to show the world that we are all human beings and that color is not important. What is important is the quality of our work.”
John Amaechi	Nov. 26, 1970	Pro Basketball Player	“I am gay, black, British…and I am now asserting my activism.”
James Baldwin	Aug. 2, 1924 Nov. 30, 1987	Author	"I love America more than any other country in the world and, exactly for this reason, I insist on the right to criticize her perpetually."
Josephine Baker	June 3, 1906 Apr. 12, 1975	Singer and Dancer	“Surely the day will come when color means nothing more than the skin tone, when religion is seen uniquely as a way to speak one's soul; when birth places have the weight of a throw of the dice and all men are born free, when understanding breeds love and brotherhood.”
Jean-Michel Basquiat	Dec. 22, 1960 Aug. 12, 1988	Graffiti Artist	"SAMO© as an end to mindwash religion, nowhere politics, and bogus philosophy"
Gladys Bentley	Aug. 12, 1907 Jan. 18, 1960	Blues Singer
Octavia Butler	June 22, 1947 Feb. 26, 2006	Author	"People have the right to call themselves whatever they like. That doesn't bother me. It's other people doing the calling that bothers me."
George Washington Carver	July 12, 1864 Jan. 5, 1943	Scientist	“Where there is no vision, there is no hope.”
RuPaul Andre Charles	Nov. 17, 1960	Actor, Dancer and TV Show Host	“What other people think of me is not my business. What I do is what I do. How people see me doesn’t change what I decide to do. I don’t choose projects so people don’t see me as one thing or another. I choose projects that excite me. I think the problem is that people refuse to understand what drag is outside of their own belief system.”
Countee Cullen	May 30, 1903 Jan. 9, 1946	Poet	“My poetry, I think, has become the way of my giving out what music is within me.”
Lee Daniels	Dec. 24, 1959	Film Director
Angela Davis	Jan. 26, 1944	Civil Rights Activist	“Revolution is a serious thing, the most serious thing about a revolutionary's life. When one commits oneself to the struggle, it must be for a lifetime.”
Ruth Ellis	July 23, 1899   Oct. 5, 2000	Activist	“I never expected I’d be 100 years old. It didn’t even come to my mind.”
Sharon Farmer	June 10, 1951	White House Photographer	“Never turn down a chance to show what you can do.”
Peter Gomes	May 22, 1942	Theologian	“There can be no light without the darkness out of which it shines.”
Mabel Hampton	May 2, 1902 Oct. 26, 1989	Lesbian Pioneer	"I, Mabel Hampton, have been a lesbian all my life, for eighty-two years, and I am proud of myself and my people. I would like all my people to be free in this country and all over the world, my gay people and my black people."
Lorraine Hansberry	May 19, 1930 Jan. 12, 1965	Author and Playwright	“All real and lasting change starts first on the inside and works it way through to the outside. Politically speaking, each person being the change we wish to see in the world is the only stance that can make a lasting difference. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.”
E.Lynn Harris	June 20, 1955 July 23, 2009	Author	“I want people to know they don’t have to live their lives in a permanent ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ existence. Truth is a powerful tool.”
Sherry Harris	Feb. 27, 1965	Politician	“All real and lasting change starts first on the inside and works it way through to the outside. Politically speaking, each person being the change we wish to see in the world is the only stance that can make a lasting difference. Indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.”
Billie Holiday	Apr. 7, 1915 July 17, 1959	Singer	"A kiss that is never tasted, is forever and ever wasted."
Langston Hughes	Feb. 1, 1902 May 22, 1967	Poet	“Hold fast to dreams, For if dreams die, Life is a broken-winged bird that cannot fly, Hold fast to dreams, For if dreams go, Life is a barren field, Frozen with snow."
Zora Neale Hurston	Jan. 7, 1891 Jan. 28, 1960	Author and Folklorist	“Mama exhorted her children at every opportunity to ‘jump at de sun.’ We might not land on the sun, but at least we would get off the ground.”
Bill T. Jones	Feb. 15, 1952	Dancer and Choreographer	"Living and dying is not the big issue. The big issue is what you’re going to do with your time while you are here."
Representative Barbara Jordan (D-Texas)	Feb. 21, 1936 Jan. 17, 1996	Politician	"My faith in the Constitution is whole, it is complete, it is total. I am not going to sit here and be an idle spectator to the diminution, the subversion, the destruction of the Constitution."
Audre Lorde	Feb. 18, 1934 Nov. 17, 1992	Author	“When I dare to be powerful, to use my strength in the service of my vision, then it becomes less and less important whether I am afraid.”
Marsha P. Johnson	1945 July 6, 1992	Transgender Activist and co-founder of S.T.A.R.	When asked what the P stood for in her name, she replied "Pay it No Mind."
Miss Major	Unknown	Transgender, Public Health and Prison Activist
Gertrude "Ma" Rainey	Apr. 26, 1886 Dec. 22, 1939	Singer	"Went out last night with a crowd of my friends, They must have been women, 'cause I don't like no men. Wear my clothes just like a fan, Talk to gals just like any old man 'Cause they say I do it, ain't nobody caught me, Sure got to prove it on me."
Bayard Rustin	Mar. 17, 1910 Aug. 24, 1987	Civil Rights Activist	"We are all one. And if we don't know it, we will learn it the hard way."
Bessie Smith	Unknown July 1892 Sept. 26, 1937	Singer	“It's a long old road, but I know I'm gonna find the end.”
Sheryl Swoopes	Mar. 25, 1971	WNBA Player	"No matter how far life pushes you down, no matter how much you hurt, you can always bounce back."
Wanda Sykes	Mar. 7, 1964	Comedian	"If you feel like there's something out there that you're supposed to be doing, if you have a passion for it, then stop wishing and just do it."
André Leon Talley	Oct. 16,1949	Fashion Editor	“It's not about canceling shows, but initiating things on an individual level. When much is given to you, much is expected. If you're an honest American, you can't wake up and not be affected by the neglect of the government after Katrina. You can't be an honest American and not think about it every day.”
Alice Walker	Feb. 9, 1944	Author and Feminist	“The truest and most enduring impulse I have is simply to write.”
Phill Wilson	Apr. 29, 1956	AIDS Activist	"The price of the ticket for life is to leave the world in a different place than you found it, to leave the world a better place than you found it."
Jacqueline Woodson	Feb. 12, 1963	Author	“I think it's important that everyday we think about the work we need to do to make this world a better place. I mean, we should wake up thinking about it and go to bed thinking about tomorrow's tasks. There's an awful lot of change needing to be made around here.”

Related post: 

Black history and gay history are intertwined. Deal with it