Prof. Karl Stephan: Gay Marriage Advocates Use Political Intimidation to Stifle Research
August 8, 2012 at 10:00 am
Prof. Karl Stephan of Texas State University in Crisis Magazine:
"...In the 1930s, many prominent scientists and engineers in Germany lost their reputations, their jobs, and some eventually their lives because of a non-scientific reason: they happened to be Jews, or outspoken Christians, or simply opposed to some political aim of the government. Everyone now agrees that this was a grievous violation of human rights, an early warning sign of the greater wrongs the German government would do in World War II. While that situation differs from the one Regnerus finds himself in by degree, does it differ in kind from what Jewish scientists suffered in Germany in the 1930s?
Regnerus has reached scientific conclusions that oppose the prevailing political winds. Though his punishment has come from activists rather than official government sources, it is no less politically motivated and no less unjust. Smith thinks the integrity of the social-science research process is threatened by the “public smearing and vigilante media attacks” mounted against Regnerus. If such attacks are successful, we have taken a long step away from scientific integrity and a long step toward the encouragement of a political atmosphere that is totalitarian in its effects."
9 Comments
Why hasn't NOM testified at *any* of the DOMA trials around the country?
Why hasn't ed testified at *any* of the DOMA trials around the country?
thats not the question I asked, Rick. However, Why haven't *you* been called?
I'm glad people are stepping up to defend Regnerus and the Social Science Research journal.
After reading several articles on the matter, I now see that Sherkat found nothing wrong with the peer-review process of the journal, and just used his auditing appointment to lambast the NFSS. Really, he hated the study from the beginning (before he was appointed to investigate the peer-review process) and just expressed his hatred of it after finding no fault in the reviewers. Since he used his audit publicity to criticize the NFSS, many in the lamestream media mistakenly took this as a sign that the audit revealed flaws that Regnerus and the various reviewers didn't take into account.
Sherkat expressed his views on why studies like the NFSS shouldn't be published in journals like Social Science Research, but, as noted in NRO by VerBruggen, the NFSS is not the first type of study to be published by the journal. I guess Sherkat is advocating a total overhaul of the publishing procedures.
Dr. Wright:
I am writing to express dismay and outrage that the American Sociological Association has not yet taken appropriate actions against its member Mark Regnerus of the University of Texas at Austin.
Please respond after reading this message, by letting me know what you are going to do. If by chance, you, or the ASA as a body, disagree with the assessment of the ASA member Regnerus's study as scientifically invalid, then immediately make a public, official ASA statement of support for the scientific validity of the ASA member Regnerus study. To me it appears that the ASA member Regnerus made no valid comparison between a test group and a control group, and that therefore, his test-group/control-group study is not valid. But, if the American Sociological Association wants to put its prestigious name on the line in this matter, then it should step forward and defend the Regnerus study as being -- in official ASA opinion, valid. The public can then make its assessment of the ASA. To remain silent in the face of this outrage -- as victims are being intentionally hurt daily by the ASA member Regnerus's deliberately falsified scientific record -- is complacent and cowardly.
I am going to show you examples of who and what the ASA member Regnerus took his known minimum of $785,000 in funding from, in order to carry out his alleged 'gay parenting' study. The heads of the Witherspoon Institute, which largely funded the ASA member Regnerus, also are heads of the so-called "National Organization for Marriage."
ASA member Regernus's funders of Witherspoon/NOM sponsor anti-gay hate rallies, where the ASA member Regnerus's funders at Witherspoon/NOM's-approved speakers yell through megaphones that homosexuals are "worthy to death." Here's a video of such an ASA member Regnerus-funders-sponsored event:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtOMYM-sUkk
The ASA member Regnerus's funders of Witherspoon/NOM -- such as William Duncan -- participate in anti-gay hate fests where they lead session topics such as "Homosexuals or Homo Sapiens; Who Deserves Protected Class Status?" You can see documentation of that here:
http://law.liberty.edu/media/1190/2010symposium/Law%20Review%20Symposium%20Schedule.pdf
In other words, ASA member Mark Regnerus's study funders say that gays aren't human and deserve to die.
I hope you can appreciate the concern, that ASA member Mark Regnerus's funders say that homosexuals aren't human and deserve to die, and then use Regnerus's fraudulent "gay-parenting" study to further hate-monger against innocent gay people.
ASA member Mark Regnerus's funders, moreover, have long-established records of deliberately and knowingly using falsifications of scientific records to demonize homosexuals in political contexts. The 2012 Intelligence Report from the Southern Poverty Law Center about the ASA member Mark Regnerus's funders a Witherspoon/NOM is titled "National Organization for Marriage Continues to Spread Lies About Gays." For reference, the SPLC report is here:
http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-report/browse-all-issues/2012/summer/shading-the-truth
I am holding you personally accountable -- because of your implicit and conspicuous position of influence in the ASA -- for taking immediate steps that result in concrete, palpable results-getting actions with respect to my herein contained complaint. Mark Regnerus as an ASA member is in collusion with political gay-bashers, and is causing direct harm and injury to LGBT Americans via a fraudulent, scientifically invalid study. This kind of thing has occurred before, with deliberate distortions of scientific records being used intentionally to inflict harm on innocent minority members. It is never acceptable, and this particular instance of it must be halted.
Now, let me tell you just a bit about who I am, and what I do.
I fight tirelessly for the rights of victims of institutionalized societal bigotry. I employ whatever legal means are necessary to get bigots, and BIGOT ENABLERS, to behave responsibly.
The American Sociological Association currently is a BIGOT-ENABLER with respect to its member Mark Regnerus, and that is to say, with respect to its member Mark Regnerus, the ASA IS NOT BEHAVING RESPONSIBLY.
This situation is unacceptable, and must change immediately. I will not stand for the American Sociological Association's continued complacency with respect to its member Mark Regnerus. Here is what is involved:
The University of Texas at Austin's Mark Regnerus carried out the "New Family Structures Study," funded for a known minimum of $785,000 by persons and organizations with documented histories of distorting scientific records to demonize homosexuals in political contexts. Regnerus's sociological study makes no valid comparison between a control group and a test group. His cherry-picked control group is comprised of young adult children of continuously married heterosexual couples. His test group is comprised of young adult children from a mish-mosh of broken home situations including divorce, a parent who died prematurely, et cetera . . and from this, without anything in his data to support his conclusions, Regnerus concluded that gay parents have worse child outcomes than do heterosexual parents. Additional concerns about the study's validity relate to 1) the fact that Regnerus claims his sampling is statistically valid, when documentably, it is not, 2) to his data being corrupt, which is documented, and 3) to his study methodology and instruments not answering the question he poses with his study.
Not to put a fine point on it; the "study" was commissioned anti-gay hate speech, requested by and delivered on a deadline in time for pernicious exploitation in the 2012 elections. This is not the first time in US history that a social minority has been attacked in political contexts via deliberate distortions of scientific records; it's been done before to Jews, to blacks, to Japanese-Americans and to other victims.
Among reputable scientists who don't have conflicts of interest in opining on Regnerus's "study," there is universal agreement that the study is not scientifically valid. A group of over 200 Ph.D.s and M.D.s sent a letter to the journal that published Regnerus, complaining of the study's lack of intellectual integrity, and also voicing suspicions pertaining to its rushed publication circumstances. For reference, that letter may be viewed here: http://tinyurl.com/7rk57yr
Among other things those 200 Ph.D.s and M.D.s put into their letter is this: "these concerns should have been identified through a thorough and rigorous peer review process."
As turns out, the peer review process was corrupt; the editor-in-chief saw that the "study" was being funded for $785,000 by politically-connected sources, knew that they would promote his journal for him if he published this study -- causing his journal's "impact factor" to go up -- and so he cherry-picked non-topic-experts with conflicts of interest to rubber stamp the submission for publication, despite all of its glaring, baseline scientific errors. Please note that Social Science Research's published Peer Review Policy right on the journal's website says that authors should expect to wait 2 to 3 months for peer review to be completed, but that submissions on esoteric topics require many more than 2 to 3 months, just for the editor to locate topic expert peer reviewers. Regnerus's study was submitted on February 1, 2012 and accepted for publication on March 12, just 5 1/2 weeks later, and with NO topic experts used as peer reviewers. Among the peer reviewers were persons who had been paid Regnerus study consultants, and persons with long-standing professional relationships with Regnerus. For reference, more about the corrupt peer review may be read here: http://tinyurl.com/bp8ky88
Note that the University of Texas at Austin, itself, has been promoting this study through advertorials. See here for an example: http://tinyurl.com/c96qqw2
A group of 8 major professional organizations, including the American Medical Association, filed an amicus brief in the Golinski-DOMA case, analyzing the Regnerus study as scientifically invalid. Those groups filed their brief after a tiny, religious right wing splinter group, the "American College of Pediatricians," filed a brief relying heavily on Regnerus but misrepresenting what Regnerus said. The AMA brief explains ACP's distortions but does also define the Regnerus study itself as unacceptable as science. The AMA brief is here: http://tinyurl.com/7g55hzt
Just this week, American Sociological Association member Mark Regnerus was implicated in a fresh outrage involving the abuse of his invalid study to hate-monger against homosexuals. A conspicuously unhinged individual, Robert Oscar Lopez, has since the time the ASA member Regnerus's study was published been making gay-bashing statements all over the internet, along with misrepresentations of what the ASA member Regnerus study -- invalid though it is -- actually says. One reason this sets off red flags on fire, is that the ASA member Regnerus's Witherspoon/NOM funders' had internal strategy documents released through court order in March. Those ASA member Regnerus-funders' strategy documents described plans to "drive a wedge" and to "fan hostility" between African-Americans and gays. The ASA member Regnerus-funder strategy documents also describe a plot to get children of gay parents to denounce their gay parents to the public. There is an appearance that Lopez has been recruited for that aim. Lopez alleges he was raised by lesbian mother. But, his statements about his upbringing are so wildly inconsistent and contradictory that there is no element of any representation about his personal life that is reliable. Shockingly, the ASA member Regnerus's Witherspoon/NOM funders this week published a Lopez essay, hate-mongering against gays, full of obvious inconsistencies (i.e., lies) and also chock full of misrepresentations of what the ASA member Regnerus study says. Lopez in that essay says that the ASA member Regnerus contact him FIRST -- having seen Lopez's comments about the study on line. Lopez reports that he had ongoing communications with ASA member Regnerus about the study. Yet, even after that, Lopez publishes on the ASA member Regnerus's funders' website, an anti-gay hate-mongering essay that misrepresents what the ASA member Regnerus study says. ASA member Regnerus obviously is not taking proper steps to make sure that public communications about his study are accurate. That this has occurred in the framework of his politically-motivated funders' hate-mongering campaign against homosexuals is completely unacceptable.
I am placing links to additional relevant articles about this situation below my signature.
Scott Rose
1) A FAULTY “GAY PARENTING” STUDY, Amy Davidson, The New Yorker
http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/closeread/2012/06/a-faulty-gay-parenting-study.html
2) IRS Complaint Filed Against NOM And Witherspoon In ASA member Regnerus Anti-Gay Study Scandal
http://thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/irs-complaint-filed-against-nom-and-witherspoon-in-regnerus-anti-gay-study-scandal/elections/2012/08/07/45764
3) How the funders are using the ASA invalid study to hate-monger against a minority:
http://thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/opinion-noms-maggie-gallagher-lying-about-invalid-anti-gay-regnerus-study/discrimination/2012/07/13/43304
4)ASA member Mark Regnerus And NOM’s Anti-Gay-Rights ‘Expert Witness Project’
http://thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/mark-regnerus-and-noms-anti-gay-rights-expert-witness-project/politics/2012/07/02/42580
5)How ASA member Regnerus's funders exploit antisemitism in the electorate for political advantages:
http://thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/opinion-anti-semitism-also-part-of-noms-hateful-wedge-strategies/politics/2012/06/12/41161
6) Newark Star-Ledger editorial calling ASA member Regnerus's funders' race baiting and hate-mongering "sick beyond words"
http://blog.nj.com/njv_editorial_page/2012/04/gay_marriage_opponents_will_ex.html
National Org. For Marriage/Ruben Diaz rally: Pastor preaches that gays are 'worthy to death'
http://www.youtube.com
5/15/11, rally in Bronx, NY hosted by National Organization For Marriage and state senator Ruben Diaz, Sr. (D-Bronx). Rev. Ariel Torres Ortega of Radio Visió...
Michael Barber
Did Stefan address the reasons WHY over 200 researchers question Regnerus' study or did he attempt to use the pity excuse?
"Did Stefan address the reasons WHY over 200 researchers question Regnerus' study or did he attempt to use the pity excuse?"
They probably just don't like the results and how some might try to use them.
That's the only reasonable explanation for why the 200 researchers didn't feel the need to question the previous same-sex parenting studies.
Dr. Sherkat's was chosen as the auditor of Regnerus study. His cv is available online. It's enormously impressive, demonstrating the range of his professional accomplishments. I do note some relevant publications that may suggest his perspective:
Sherkat, Darren E. Powell, Melissa, and Greg Maddox. “Religion and Opposition to Same Sex Marriage.” Sherkat, Darren E. “Bad Samaritans: Christian Sectarianism and Anti-Immigrant Sentiment”
Sherkat, Darren E., Kylan DeVries, and Stacia Creek. 2010. “Religion, Race and Support for Same-Sex Marriage.” Social Science Quarterly.91:80-98.
Sherkat, Darren E. 2000. ""That They Be Keepers of the Home": The Effect of Conservative Religion on Early and Late Transitions into Housewifery." Review of Religious Research. 41:344-458.
Sherkat, Darren E. and Alfred Darnell. 1999. "The Effect of Parents' Fundamentalism on Children's Educational Attainment: Examining Differences by Gender and Children's Fundamentalism" Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion. 38:23-35.
Darnell, Alfred and Darren E. Sherkat. 1997. "The Impact of Fundamentalism on Educational Attainment." American Sociological Review. 62:306-315.
Sherkat, Darren E. and John Wilson. 1995. "Preferences, Constraints, and Choices in Religious Markets: An Examination of Religious Switching and Apostasy." Social Forces. 73:993-1026.
Ellison, Christopher G. and Darren E. Sherkat. 1995. "The Semi-Involuntary Institution Revisited: Regional Variations in Church Participation Among Black Americans." Social Forces. 73:1415-1437.
Wilson, John and Darren E. Sherkat. 1994. "Returning to the Fold." Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion. 33:148-161.
Ellison, Christopher G. and Darren E. Sherkat. 1993. "Conservative Protestantism and Support for Corporal Punishment." American Sociological Review. 58:131-144
GReat Fitz