Over 200 professors, therapists condemn anti-gay parenting study

Editor's Note - Today's edition of Know Your LGBT History has been put on hold because of some explosive news:

From Think Progress:

Regnerus

Mark Regnerus’ flawed paper on gay parenting has won the acclaim of hate groups and ex-gay therapists and its publication seems to have been politically calculated with marriage equality opponents like the National Organization for Marriage. A group of 18 anti-gay religiously-biased professors defended the paper, but now, a group of over 200 professors and therapists have written a “bombshell letter” critiquing its methods and publication.

Among the concerns are how quickly it was published, the validity of its peer review, and the merits of its methodology and conclusions:

We are very concerned about the academic integrity of the peer review process for this paper as well as its intellectual merit. We question the decision of Social Science Research to publish the paper, and particularly, to publish it without an extensive, rigorous peer review process and commentary from scholars with explicit expertise on LGBT family research. The methodologies used in this paper and the interpretation of the findings are inappropriate.
The publication of this paper and the accompanying commentary calls the editorial process at Social Science Research, a well-regarded, highly cited social science journal (ranking in the top 15% of Sociology journals by ISI), into serious question. We urge you to publicly disclose the reasons for both the expedited peer review process of this clearly controversial paper and the choice of commentators invited to submit critiques. We further request that you invite scholars with specific expertise in LGBT parenting issues to submit a detailed critique of the paper and accompanying commentaries for publication in the next issue of the journal.

Read the full letter for more detail about the professors’ concerns.

The data in this study clearly lacks the integrity to actually impact mainstream psychological thinking on the question of same-sex parenting, as exemplified by this letter and the American Psychological Association’s rebuke of the study. Whether its publication was politically intentional is irrelevant to the fact that the only purpose it serves is to add to the stack of invalid studies the anti-gay movement cites to defend its anti-equality actions.

The letter also raises another question regarding Regnerus' study - the length of the review process before it was published  and who was chosen to review it:

We question the process by which this paper was submitted, reviewed, and accepted for publication. The paper was received by the journal on February 1, 2012. A revision was received on February 29, and the paper was accepted on March 12. This suggests that the peer review process and substantive revisions occurred within a period of just five weeks. According to the peer review policy of the Social Science Research website hosted by Elsevier, the first step of the review process is an initial manuscript evaluation by the editor. Once deemed to meet minimum criteria, at least 2 experts are secured for a peer review. The website states that, “Typically manuscripts are reviewed within 2-3 months of submission but substantially longer review times are not uncommon” and that “Revised manuscripts are usually returned to the initial referees upon receipt.” Clearly, Dr. Regnerus’ paper was returned to him very quickly, because he had time to revise the manuscript and get it back to the journal by February 29th. Further, it appears that a second substantive peer review may not have occurred as the paper was accepted just two weeks after the revision was submitted.

The five-week submission to acceptance length was much shorter than all of the other articles published in the July 2012 issue. The average period of review for papers published in this issue was more than a year and the median review time was more than ten months. As we note below, there are substantial concerns about the merits of this paper, and these concerns should have been identified through a thorough and rigorous peer review process.

We further question the selection of commenters for the Regnerus paper. While Cynthia Osborne and Paul Amato are certainly well-respected scholars, they are also both active participants in the Regnerus study. According to her curriculum vitae, Dr. Osborne is a Co-Principal Investigator of the New Family Structure Survey. Dr. Amato served as a paid consultant on the advisory group convened to provide insights into study design and methods. Perhaps more importantly, neither Osborne nor Amato have ever published work that considers LGBT family or parenting issues. A cursory examination of this body of literature would reveal a wide range of scholars who are much more qualified to evaluate the merits of this study and were neither directly involved in the study design nor compensated for that involvement.

Slowly but surely, this study is becoming a headache for all involved in its creation, funding, publishing, and promoting.

It's extremely unprecedented that over 200 professors and therapists condemn one study. Instead of jaded comments of "well we know it was biased," the gay community needs to spread news of this to the four corners and beyond. A lot of people DO NOT know this study is trash and it's up to US to tell them.

Hat tip to author Scott Rose who has been on the ball from day one exposing the truth about this study.

'NOM affiliates with ex-gay church' and other Friday midday news briefs

NOM Hosting Summer Student Conference At “Ex-Gay” Church - Sort of speaks for itself, doesn't it?

 Head of PAC trying to stop marriage in Maine: Refer to 'sodomy-based marriage' as 'monstrous insaneness' - Geez, what is the deal with homophobes and anal sex. They are like racists and interracial sex. 
  
 Porno Pete Mad At Facebook Guy For Giving Money To Cause He Believes In - Cause you know everyone who gives to a gay cause is apart of the secret plot to make everyone gay.  
  
Obamacare Will Help LGBT People Access Health Insurance - Now about that mocking of the "fierce advocate" label . . .  
  
Tyler Clementi's Parents Give Interview, Blame Dharun Ravi's Webcam Spying For Son's Suicide - As well they should. Just plain trashy what Ravi did to that child. 

Reason why Christianity is getting a bad reputation

A recent poll claims that young Americans are beginning to lose faith in God:

The poll, conducted in April by the Pew Research Center, showed that 31 percent of respondents under the age of 30 have doubts about the existence of God, compared to 9 percent of those polled who were 65 or older.

When asked to evaluate the statement, "I never doubted the existence of god," 18 percent of all respondents said that they mostly or completely disagreed.

Now some folks may chalk it up to the "last days before Jesus returns." Others may call it a minor blip.

Personally I think the following has a lot to do with it:








Finger-pointing and lies never does any good, does it? What would Jesus do, indeed?

Minnesota group lying about anti-gay protest attendance

Apparently spinning stories about hacking isn't the only talent Minnesota for Marriage's Andy Parrish possesses.

He can also be counted on to spin stories about a pitiful protest, as this tweet demonstrates:

According to Jeremy Hooper (thanks Jeremy for the picture by the way), Parrish's claim (at the bottom of the tweet - enlarge it to read)  that General Mill's VP and Head of Security is intimidating those protesting the company's support of marriage equality simply isn't true:

In truth, General Mills has greeted these laughably failing protests with both open arms and refreshments. But then again, I guess desperately disastrous PR stunts call for desperate, face-saving spin.  

Parrish's false claim comes days after Minnesota for Marriage blatantly lied about the number of protestors at its last protest:

Does the following look like hundreds to you?




Hat tip to Jeremy Hooper for this graphics as well.

'School board stymies ex-gay group' and other Thursday midday news briefs

I think it's safe to say that gay news today is taking a backseat but I will attempt to entertain you with items happening having nothing to do with the SUPREME COURT UPHOLDING ACA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

School Board votes to curtail policy that allowed ''ex-gay'' organization to send home anti-gay literature - Good. We don't need mess like that in public schools.

Christian group backs away from ex-gay therapy - What took them so long?

Conservative Hate Group Uses Gay Couple's Wedding Picture In Attack Ad - Haters just can't help themselves.

New Bill Would Recognize Military Same-Sex Spouses - I don't see why not.

Federal Judge: Counseling Student Has No Right To Impose Anti-Gay Beliefs On Clients - Religious liberty my ass!

Anti-gay group's hacking claim smells fishy

Yesterday, the group Minnesota for Marriage (an organization pushing hard for the state referendum which would ban marriage equality in the state) claimed that its facebook page was hacked.

The organization made this claim after a message was posted on its wall which said the following:

According to Talking Points Memo, the post was placed on the wall late Tuesday night and remained there until mid-afternoon Wednesday:

Minnesota for Marriage Communications Director Chuck Darrell told TPM that the Facebook page was hacked. “There’s always somebody in this game that wants to inflict or inject a hateful, divisive message, and that’s what happened here,” he said. “We’ve been running our message for over a year now, and it’s been a very pro-family, pro-children, pro-marriage message, and promoting respectful discussion. We’ll be searching for the person who committed this act and we’re prosecuting them to the full extent of the law.”

In addition,  Andy Parrish, the group’s deputy campaign manager, claimed that all of his online accounts (twitter, facebook, and others) were hacked.

Now it could be that Parrish and the group is telling the truth. Of course very few in the gay community believe that they were hacked.

Many of us simply don't believe that an organization (Minnesota for Marriage) which includes a group (the Minnesota Family Council) which accuses gays of bestiality, pedophilia, and the consuming of human waste would suddenly balk at publicly citing Biblical verses calling for the death of gays.

For me, it's a bit more simple.

With all of that hacking supposedly going on, how odd is it that only one message was left? Parrish claims that all of his accounts were hacked, yet the havoc done was supposedly on the Minnesota for Marriage facebook page.

I mean if someone takes the time to hack one person's facebook page, twitter account, and other accounts, then why would they leave one seemingly innocuous message on a facebook page?

Just a question.

Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters celebrates one million hits!!!!

 

I'm proud of this day, the day when my blog has officially breached one million hits in the span of a little over five years.

What can I say but how thankful I am for those who have supported me, helped me, advised me, especially given me kind words, and most of all read my posts.

Initially the Holy Bullies and Headless Monsters blog began as an advertising tool for a self-published book I wrote of the same name. I wrote the book because I felt that the lgbtq community was not getting what it needed in terms of information to refute the lies of the religious right.

The book was published in 2007 and it was a very, very minor success. To be honest, it didn't come off like I wanted it to. One day I will go revisit it and maybe work on another edition.

But for now, it's all about this blog. So much has happened in the years I've been posting.

Marriage equality is now seen as an inevitability rather than an impossible dream.

We have an African-American president

Gays and lesbians can serve openly in the military

And most of all, our community has become more powerful. We have taken advantage of the internet age in terms of sending out information and reaching those in our community which we never have before. And we have become more sophisticated in exposing the right.

Years ago, a study like that awful one which was published recently about gay parenting would have devastated us. We wouldn't have been able to combat the junk science in it. But now we can and we have. We have become more intelligent, more consistent, and more direct in calling out the religious right when they lie on us.

I like to think that I play a part in that.

That's not to say there haven't been problems.

I do not act, I do not sing. I am not a celebrity. I do not live in a metropolitan area. I am an unconventional gay man - older, African-American, not twinkish at all, and from the South. No one is going to put me on camera as representative of the gay community no matter how much intelligence or finesse I possess and very rarely do I get the play I would like from some of the national groups or the attention I would like my blog to receive from some of the scoops I break.

And there are times in which I get depressed when I take into account the enormity of the fight for equality or when I wonder if my words are having an effect.

But those moments come and go like rain. They never stay. What does stay is my need to educate my lgbtq brothers and sisters on the basic fact that just about every negative thing said about us are lies.

We are not sinners, we are not filthy and evil, we are not sick, and we don't need prayer to change ourselves.

The lgbtq community is as God made us and as such, we are marvelous in His eyes.

Our sexual orientations are not things that we can take on or off nor are they "conditions" which we should be ashamed of or allow the ignorant to strip us of.

I am a gay man. That part of me as a crucial to my personhood as my ethnic heritage and my very humanity. No one can take that away from me. And no one will.

And as long as you keep reading, I will keep posting. To the right corner of this blog are some of what I consider the best posts I have done in these five and a half years. If you haven't yet, feel free to indulge yourselves.

One more thing:

Dear Peter LaBarbera, Peter Sprigg, Maggie Gallagher, Brian Brown, Tony Perkins, Matt Barber, National Organization for Marriage, Family Research Council and the rest of you nuts,

Thank you for being so transparently full of lies that you have given me more than enough material to work with in these five and a half years.

No doubt, you will continue to shuck and jive and lie in the name of God as you do those things that you think we are not hip to.

Please be aware that as long as you do them, I will be there to shine a light on your hypocrisy, laugh in your face, and expose your distortions in front of God and Man alike.

Also be aware that no matter how much money you have or influence you think you may have, the one thing you do not have and you will never have is truth.

You are going to lose this fight. Count on it.