Dear Dr. Mark Regnerus and Other Homophobic Bigots…

Who Cares About Science?

I was fortunate enough to get a great many responses to my BWA for Mark Regnerus.  Along with the responses came many wonderful ideas for a call to action.  I would like to share a key call to action and I have to thank Scott Rose from The New Civil Rights Movement for leaving this item on my blog. I also need to thank my friend and ally Sara Swain.

First, one needs to point out just some of the flawed science of Dr. Regnerus: the core of Regnerus’ analysis is “kin altruism”, the biological tie between parent and child, a mythical sine qua non in securing the stability required for children to thrive. That stability can come ONLY from this mythical kin altruism, and children can thrive ONLY with this kin-altruism-derived stability. Ergo, ONLY those children raised by their biological parent(s) (who are presumably not drunkards, abusive, mentally deranged, etc.) have the potential for the kind of positive outcomes Regnerus is seeking–I would love to see some meaningful data he had, presuming Dr. Regnerus knows what that is.

Take Action:

Here is just a snippet of the action Scott Rose took and I encourage all LGBT folk and our allies to take similar action:

William Powers, Jr.
President
University of Texas, Austin
Office of the President
Main Building 400 (G3400)
Austin, Texas 78713-8920

In Re: Scientific Misconduct Complaint against UTA’s Mark D. Regnerus

Dear President Powers:

I have filed, through the “EthicsPoint” online system, a complaint against UTA’s Mark D. Regnerus for Scientific Misconduct in violation of UTA’s Academic Dishonesty Policy, which forbids use of misinformation to hurt others.

Please respond promptly to this letter, which is being published at http://www.TheNewCivilRightsMovement.com

Here are some facts of the case:

1)        This is not a complaint that UTA Mark D. Regnerus is active politically. The complaint rather is that Regnerus took money from political persons and groups to further their political goals, and in preparing a study for them, rushed it through production for their use in the 2012 elections, though Regnerus himself has stated in a video interview given to the Daily Texan’s Hannah Jane Deciutus that his methodology for the study does not work “to the long-term benefit of science.” In other words, in order to retain a large grant from political organizations, a) Regnerus knowingly failed to uphold acceptable standards for his discipline, and b) knowingly rushed through his study in time for his funders to use it in the 2012 elections, instead of c) working professionally to produce a study that would work “to the long-term benefit of science.” In that, Professor Regnerus’s behavior is antithetical to the raison d’être of a university.

Please contact the University of Texas, Austin and let President Powers hear our collective voice that homophobic non-science is not acceptable!

Bigot of the Week Award: June 15, Mark Regnerus

Bigot of the Week

Congratulations to University of Texas sociologist Mark Regnerus for making anti-gay hate groups happy and ignoring basic principles of surveys all in one publication. The outspoken professor has a new study in the July issue of Social Science Research entitled How different are the adult children of parents who have same-sex relationships? Findings from the New Family Structures Study. Great title — lousy science. One expects better from University of Texas, Austin–shame on you UT Austin.

Regnerus claims that his extensive research

clearly reveals that children appear most apt to succeed well as adults — on multiple counts and across a variety of domains — when they spend their entire childhood with their married mother and father.

Unfortunately, a cursory review of the study clearly reveals two things: Regnerus’ methodology is fatally flawed and the outcomes he trumpets aren’t that obvious even allowing for those flaws. The main thing he proves is that kids in stable homes do better than kids in unstable homes (DUH) and that he only looked at heterosexual stable homes. He makes no effort to create a matched set of households for comparison and uses some truly bizarre logic to determine what constitutes a same-sex household (really? have you ever taken a basic research class, Mark?).

Regnerus has a history of headline-grabbing sensationalism based on bigotry. He wrote a piece for Slate arguing that the sexual revolution has actually been harmful to women as well as pieces maintaining that good Christians should ensure that their children marry early before society can corrupt their values. His new study was funded by two socially conservative groups: the Witherspoon Institute and the Bradley Foundation.

Both the New Yorker and Media Matters do an excellent job of dismantling the Regnerus study. What a shame this right-wing bigot wasted over $750,000 dollars in research funds just to give NOM and Tony Perkins another lie to spread.