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Category Archives: Ethics

Gay Sperm Donor Told to Pay for His Daughters

November 3, 2012 – 2:00 pm

A British gay man lived a content life before he was contacted suddenly by the Child Support Agency (CSA), demanding he start paying £26 ($41, €32) a week for two children he technically fathered over a decade ago.

Mark Langridge, from Essex, helped a former lesbian couple who were desperate for children and ask him to donate his sperm so they could have children.

The 47-year-old had not seen the family he helped out of kindness create since 2004, he was not named on the birth certificates of the two children and played no role in their upbringing.

By NOM Staff | Posted in Children, Ethics, Parenting, Science, United Kingdom | Comments (3)

Matthew Franck on "The Vindication of Mark Regnerus"

November 1, 2012 – 8:00 am

Today on Public Discourse, Matt Franck discusses new analyses that confirm Mark Regnerus's findings. The second in a two-part series.

"Yesterday on Public Discourse, I described the controversy that followed the publication of the New Family Structures Study (NFSS), led by University of Texas sociologist Mark Regnerus. During a summer of unusual abuse, Regnerus remained largely silent but with his head unbowed. As autumn arrived, he found himself vindicated as an honest scientist by his university, with continued support from the journal editor who published his research.

In the November 2012 issue of Social Science Research, Regnerus has published a new article: “Parental same-sex relationships, family instability, and subsequent life outcomes for adult children: Answering critics of the new family structures study with additional analyses.”... How many children were raised by two women staying together from the child’s first birthday to his or her eighteenth? Just two. And how many such cases were there in the FGR category—of children raised by two men together for their whole childhood? Zero. This, out of an initial population of 15,000.I recite these numbers to make a point of my own that fairly leaps off the pages of Regnerus’s work: that family instability is the characteristic experience of those whose parents have same-sex relationships. This is what Regnerus is getting at when he says that critics who want him to treat stability as a “control variable” are actually “controlling for the pathways.” To go on an endless search for a sizable random sample of long-term, stable same-sex couples raising children is to miss the social reality in front of us, namely that they are conspicuously missing from the lives of children whose parents have same-sex relationships..."

By NOM Staff | Posted in Children, Culture, Ethics, Parenting, Research/Study | Comments (6)

PMW: Pro R-74 (Gay Marriage) Camp Continues Using Discredited Mailer

October 30, 2012 – 3:00 pm

Preserve Marriage Washington on more misleading mailers from our cash-flushed opponents in Washington:

"Even though a campaign mailer was criticized by the news media as “misleading” and failing the “political smell test” when it targeted senior citizens in western Washington, gay marriage activists have sent it to seniors in the eastern part of the state anyway. The flyer, which recently hit mailboxes in the Tri-Cities and Spokane areas, suggests that if R-74 is rejected “many seniors would lose hard-earned health care, military or pension benefits” or “have to pay higher taxes on their Social Security benefits.” That is not true. See the mailer here.

That mailer was called “misleading” by The Tacoma News Tribune and The Olympian, both of which indicated the ad failed the “political smell test.”

... “The news media blew the whistle on gay marriage activists when they tried this deceitful ploy in western Washington. Now, they are trying to pull one over on seniors in the eastern part of the state,” said Chip White, Preserve Marriage Washington Communications Director.

Calling this “a Pinocchio-style lie,” White added, “This is a scare tactic that stirs up fear on the part of seniors. Gay marriage supporters need to stop trying to trick senior citizens. Shame on them.”

By NOM Staff | Posted in Ethics, Marriage, Same Sex Marriage, Washington | Comments (1)

MFM: "Minnesota Gay Marriage Advocates Mislead, Distort Facts"

October 30, 2012 – 11:30 am

Minnesota for Marriage pushes back on misleading claims by their opponents:

"The claim of marriage amendment opponents, most recently including some doctors, that 25 years of research supports the conclusion that there are “no differences” in outcomes between children raised in gay and lesbian households and kids raised in intact homes by their mother and father is false. As chronicled in the journal Social Science Research there is no scholarly rigorous body of scientific research that supports the idea that children raised in gay or lesbian households do as well as or better than children living in an intact home with their married mother and father. In fact, the most recent, peer-reviewed research casts serious doubt on the “no differences” claim and suggests that there may in fact be significant differences.

"The statements made by some doctors and gay marriage advocates that dedication and love is the primary factor in child well-being relies on the underlying premise that family structure does not matter—a claim which is both unsupported by significant data and an assault on common sense,” said Jason Adkins, Minnesota for Marriage vice chairman. “Men and women are not interchangeable parts or parents. We continue to ask gay marriage advocates which parent is insignificant or less important for a child, a mother or father, and they and their allies continue to ignore the question and move into the realm of agenda-driven politics."

By NOM Staff | Posted in Ethics, Law, Marriage, Minnesota, Same Sex Marriage | Comments (14)

PMW: Another Pro-Referendum 74 TV Ad Tells More Lies About Hospital Visitation Rights

October 29, 2012 – 2:30 pm

Preserve Marriage Washington counters more untruths being pushed by our opponents:

In a recently released TV advertisement entitled “Angie,” lesbian couple Angie Buysee and Cynthia Per-Lee say that Buysee was in surgery and the nurse refused to tell Per-Lee what was happening “just because we weren’t married.” The pro-Referendum 74 ad suggests that same-sex domestic partners do not currently have hospital visitation rights. That is not true. The ad repeats a false claim that was previously made in a television ad entitled “Chris,” which gay marriage activists aired last month, and which has already been discredited by both The Seattle Times and the Associated Press. (Click here to read The Seattle Times’ story, “Truth Needle: Gay-marriage ad fails to mention rights granted to domestic partners,” September 26, 2012. And click here to read the Associated Press story which ran in the Tacoma News Tribune and numerous other newspapers: “Campaign fact check: Same-sex couples have visitation rights,” September 26, 2012.)

Calling the TV ad’s assertions “a bunch of baloney,” Preserve Marriage Washington Communications Director Chip White said, “This claim is an utter lie. Under Washington state law, same-sex couples already have the same exact legal rights as married couples, including the right to be with each other in the hospital. Approving R-74 would provide no additional rights to same-sex couples because they already have the same rights as married couples under the ‘Everything but Marriage’ domestic partners law from three years ago.”

By NOM Staff | Posted in Ethics, Law, Marriage, Same Sex Marriage, Washington | Comments (8)

PMW: Pro-Referendum 74 Attack Ad Distorts What Washington Newspapers Actually Wrote

October 29, 2012 – 11:30 am

Preserve Marriage Washington calls out our opponents for their latest misleading attack ad:

In their latest television ad, “Families,” the campaign to impose same-sex marriage shows footage from Preserve Marriage Washington’s first TV spot entitled “Not About Equality,” and suggests that multiple newspapers agree that PMW’s spot was not “telling the truth about Referendum 74.” That is inaccurate.

Referring to the PMW spot’s statement, “When laws like 74 have occurred elsewhere, people who disagree have faced lawsuits, fines and punishment,” the pro-gay marriage ad displays a graphic reading, “Attacks on Referendum 74,” as the announcer intones, “The Seattle Times calls their attacks ‘unfounded,’ The Everett Herald – ‘myths,’ and The Columbian – ‘simply baseless.’” The ad continues, “There’s just no evidence that allowing marriage for same-sex couples has produced a rash of lawsuits.” The ad falsely states, “The Walla-Walla Union Bulletin says marriage matters because domestic partnerships ‘fall short’ for Washington families.”

Proponents of gay marriage wrongly imply that the newspapers were criticizing a TV spot by Preserve Marriage Washington, even though all the newspaper quotes pre-date that commercial going on the air. The traditional marriage spot did not start to run until October 11. However, The Everett Herald quote is from October 3, The Columbian quote is from September 16, the Walla-Walla Union Bulletin quote is from September 13, and The Seattle Times quotes are from February 11—more than nine months ago.

By NOM Staff | Posted in Ethics, Marriage, Media, Same Sex Marriage, Washington | Comments (3)

PMW: Referendum 74 Proponents Lie to Seniors Saying They will Lose Their Pension Benefits

October 22, 2012 – 11:00 am

Preserve Marriage Washington, which is fighting to Reject R-74 (gay marriage):

Preserve Marriage Washington announced today that the campaign is appalled by a campaign advertisement that supporters of Referendum 74 mailed to senior citizens recently. The mailer suggests that if R-74 is rejected “many seniors would lose hard-earned health care, military or pension benefits” or “have to pay higher taxes on their Social Security benefits.” That is not true. See the mailer here.

As clarified in the official explanatory statement in the Secretary of State Voters Guide, if R-74 is rejected there will be no impact on domestic partnerships for seniors, nor will there be any impact on domestic partnerships for same-sex couples. Read the Voters Guide explanatory statement here.

“Domestic partnerships for seniors and for same-sex couples will remain exactly the same as they are now. Seniors and same-sex couples will continue to be able to have domestic partnerships, and the benefits that come along with them,” said Joseph Backholm, chairman of Preserve Marriage Washington.

By NOM Staff | Posted in Ethics, Law, Marriage, Same Sex Marriage, Washington | Comments (9)

Denver Post Columnist Accuses Tim Gill and Pat Stryker of "Gutter Politics"

October 18, 2012 – 9:00 am

Vincent Carroll doesn't name the ideology Tim Gill and Pat Stryker are pushing -- though we know it is redefining marriage -- but Carroll does point out that Gill and Stryker have a long record of supporting political outfits that specialize in "character assasination":

[Pat Stryker is] still happily sends big checks to groups whose abiding purpose is to smear men and women running for office with outrageous accusations largely unrelated to reality.

She has done this for a number of years without any apparent second thoughts, so why should this election be different?

Americans say they're disgusted by over-the-top political ads, but that's hard to believe. Otherwise the perpetrators' reputations would pay a price. Yet they rarely do.

Stryker is a respected member of the civic establishment in northern Colorado. No one in her social circles would probably dream of calling her out for contributing to the debasement of political discourse — any more than anyone similarly situated in metro Denver would call out Tim Gill, another of Colorado's richest citizens associated with the same ultra-attack outfits.

The single sleaziest political mailer sent to voters in both 2008 and 2010 in Colorado — and several of the sleaziest in 2006 — was produced by groups financed in part by Stryker and Gill.

The one in 2008 falsely claimed a judge had found that a Republican candidate for the state House "posed a threat and imminent danger" to an unnamed "victim." The 2010 mailer was if anything wilder, claiming that an aspiring Republican House candidate "wants to bring all of America's nuclear waste to Colorado" in a scheme so reckless it could blow the state "off the map."

... Meanwhile, mailers against state Rep. Ken Summers, produced by the Stryker- and Gill-backed Coalition for Colorado's Future, portray him as someone with a soft spot for rapists and perpetrators of domestic violence.

Over the past five years, the second- and third-highest individual Colorado donors to political campaigns have been Gill and Stryker (Congressman Jared Polis is No. 1). And more power to them for commitment to their causes.

It's hard to get too starry eyed about this idealism, however, when year after year they consent to the tactics of the gutter.

By NOM Staff | Posted in Colorado, Ethics, Marriage, Politics, Same Sex Marriage | Comments Off

Founder of "Anonymous Us" Project on Gay People Seeking The Eggs of Young Women To Start Families

October 5, 2012 – 9:00 am

Alana Newman, founder of The Anonymous Us Project, writes at The Public Discourse: "Young women now have to defend themselves not only from stereotypical sexual predators, but also from older women and gay men who seek their eggs."

Value depends on scarcity. In the world of human reproduction, the most valuable entity is the fertile female—specifically, her eggs and her womb.

The fierce politics surrounding female fecundity and women’s reproductive rights rests not only on a woman’s ability to create new life, but also on the incredible amount of commitment and risk involved when her eggs and her womb are accessed for procreation. Since women are fertile for a shorter period than men, since gestation takes forty long weeks, and since labor and delivery pose life-threatening risks, young women always will face disproportionately high demands for access to their bodies. But those demands are rising in unexpected ways, and from unexpected people.

... Our gay friends and family members may now also be after our daughters’ bodies. These are the only men in the world we thought we could trust because they weren’t interested in our bodies. That is, until they grew older and discovered they wanted to be parents. Today, more and more often, gay men are using egg donors and surrogates to create motherless children on purpose.

... Proponents of redefining marriage call marriage equality “the civil rights struggle of our time.” TV shows such as The New Normal promote surrogacy arrangements with dialogue such as “a family is a family, and love is love.” Characters that criticize the use of surrogacy and egg donation are explicitly depicted as unsympathetic, racist, close-minded bigots.

What these shows (and other memes) do is insist that in order to be a friend to gay people, one must approve, or at least stay neutral toward, all forms of third-party reproduction.

So now, young women must do more than simply defend themselves against aggressive heterosexual males who want to use them for sex. They must also navigate a world filled with new, never-before-seen predators—people they thought they could trust—who aggressively target them for their eggs and their wombs.

By NOM Staff | Posted in Children, Ethics, Parenting, Science, Youth | Comments (5)

Bioethics Expert: "Marriage Leads to Children - Gay Marriage Leads to Surrogacy"

July 20, 2012 – 1:00 pm

Michael Cook, editor of the bioethics newsletter BioEdge and a columnist for Australian Science in the Brisbane Times:

In heterosexual relationships, the birth rate rises when couples are married. One would expect similar dynamics to apply to same-sex couples. For lesbian couples, this is not a huge problem; all they need is a sperm donor. But male couples need surrogate mothers.

Where will these women come from?

Unless the law of supply and demand is repealed, the answer is: where wombs are cheapest. At the moment, this is India, where surrogate motherhood has become a $2.3 billion industry, with the enthusiastic encouragement of some state governments. A recent investigation by the London Sunday Telegraph found there were only 100 surrogacies in Britain last year, but 1000 in India for British clients. The proportion in Australia is likely to be the same.

There are no official statistics, but it appears gay couples account for a substantial chunk of the overseas market. So will the legalisation of same-sex marriage lead to even more surrogate mothers in India? BioEdge, the bioethics newsletter I edit, emailed IVF clinics in India and the US asking whether they were preparing for a rising demand for surrogate mothers.

The answer was a resounding yes.

By NOM Staff | Posted in Children, Ethics, Marriage, Parenting, Same Sex Marriage, Science | Comments (36)

Donor-Conceived Children Criticized For Wanting to Know Their Fathers

June 21, 2012 – 11:00 am

Alana, the child of a sperm donor, says that adult children who speak out about their losses in never knowing their biological origins face fierce criticism:

For children of anonymous sperm donors yearning for a connection to their biological father, the world can be an unwelcome place.

Instead of meeting compassion, many say that society treats their pain with a dismissive or even hostile attitude - a rift caused by lack of awareness as much as by the brute force of a $3.3 billion industry.

Alana, the child of a sperm donor and the activist behind AnonymousUs.org, says she realized the hard way what she was up against when she began her awareness campaign.

“I thought it would be so easy to arrive, state the obvious that children need their fathers, and everyone would be like, oh my God, thank you for reminding us!” she said in the documentary “Anonymous Father’s Day.” “But there is a huge monster of money and people desperate for children, who don’t want me to make it harder for them to buy and sell children.”

... Another hurdle, according to Alana - a women’s studies major who says she was inappropriately ridiculed as a Christian extremist because of her advocacy - is the gay and lesbian community, who see sperm donation as “the cleanest method for them to have children.” Another major demographic, she said, was “older couples with money.”

“The fact that they’re willing to spend $100,000 for a kid is—money talks, and I can’t compete with that,” she said.

Lahl said she was hopeful that the LGBT community would be won over to oppose sperm donation once they heard the stories of children conceived in this way. “If we can educate gay men on the harms of fertility drugs, on the harms of these procedures to the women that they need, and the reality of the children’s needs and children’s right to know, then I’m hopeful that we’ll win them over,” she said. --LifeSiteNews

By NOM Staff | Posted in Children, Ethics, Parenting, Science | Comments (6)

Update: Bomb Threat Which Evacuated DC Gay Organizations Under Investigation

May 17, 2012 – 12:30 pm

Again, we find any threat of violence against people or property on either side of the marriage debate to be appalling and condemn such acts unequivocally. Our condolences and best wishes to the staff of these organizations. May we all strive for a civil debate about marriage without fear of reprisal and intimidation:

The offices of 11 gay rights organizations were briefly evacuated earlier today after receiving a series of bomb threats, including one that was phoned in from California.

Among the groups whose employees were evacuated were the Human Rights Campaign, National Gay and Lesbian Task Force and the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce, WTOP reports. The first threats were reported about 11:45 a.m.

All together, D.C. police evacuated two buildings—the Human Rights Campaign's headquarters at 1640 Rhode Island Avenue NW and a building at 729 15th Street NW that houses the other targeted organizations, The Washington Blade reports.

One of the threats was relayed to authorities here by the Los Angeles Police Department, which received a phone call about 8 a.m. Pacific time from someone threatening to blow up the "gay and lesbian headquarters," the Blade reports. On that tip, the LAPD called D.C. police, who as a precaution also cleared out its Gay and Lesbian Liaison Unit's office in Dupont Circle.

Traffic outside the Human Rights Campaign's building was briefly blocked as police swept the area. Both buildings were eventually deemed safe and employees were allowed to return to work.

Police in both Washington and Los Angeles are still investigating the bomb threats. -- DCist

By NOM Staff | Posted in Civility, Culture, Ethics, Human Rights Campaign, Marriage, Same Sex Marriage | Comments (14)

Gay Couple "Devastated" After Allegedly Botched IVF Results in Babies of Different Races

May 5, 2012 – 10:00 am

The Blaze:

A gay couple in London is reportedly “devastated” after an alleged in vitro fertilization mix-up left them with two children from different racial backgrounds, NewsCore reported.

The couple said the allegedly botched treatment only came to light recently after their second child was born; they had wanted to use the same sperm donor again so their children would be genetically related.

“The damage to the [younger] child in the future, to both the siblings and the family unit could be quite catastrophic,” said Caron Heyes, the couple’s lawyer.

By NOM Staff | Posted in Children, Ethics, Law, Parenting, Science | Comments (28)

Breitbart.com: DOJ Asked to Investigate How Obama Campaign Co-Chair Obtained Stolen IRS Tax Return

April 30, 2012 – 11:00 am

Rob Bluey of the Heritage Foundation's investigative unit with an exclusive update for Breitbart.com:

The National Organization for Marriage is asking the U.S. Department of Justice to investigate and prosecute the individuals responsible for leaking the organization’s confidential U.S. tax return and then illegally publishing it.

The stolen tax return was first published by the Human Rights Campaign and subsequently the Huffington Post. HRC is led by Joe Solmonese, who also serves as a co-chairman of President Obama's reelection committee.

In an April 25 letter to Kathryn Keneally, assistant attorney general for DOJ’s tax division, NOM President Brian Brown and Chairman John C. Eastman request an immediate investigation “to identify the person(s) responsible for these illegal actions.” (The letter is published below.)

Brown will provide an update on the brewing scandal at The Bloggers Briefing. Breitbart TV, in partnership with The Heritage Foundation, will air it live on Tuesday at noon ET.

By NOM Staff | Posted in Election Watch 2012, Ethics, Human Rights Campaign, IRS, Law, President Obama | Comments (6)

New UK Ban: Therapists Have No Right to Aid Clients Who Want Help With Living Chastely

April 23, 2012 – 10:00 am

A would be therapist is kicked out of a program and called a threat to "public safety" because he says he used to live as a gay man and no longer does. Therapists warned their licenses will be threatened if they try to help patients who want help with same-sex attraction.

Whether you are gay or not, the withdrawal of all assistance in helping people live the lives they choose--and the punitive attitude towards scientific discussion and professional practice--is chilling. An incredible repression not only of speech, and employment, but of science itself:

While most medical ethics throughout the western world has adopted the primacy of patient autonomy as its guiding principle, the psychiatric and psychological professions in the UK are becoming increasingly authoritarian in matters of sexuality, according to one would-be therapist.

Recently published professional guidelines in the UK say it is an “ethical offense” to either offer to help a client overcome homosexual temptations and feelings, or to accede to a request to do so from a client.

“I would agree that the focus is no longer on autonomy” in ethics in psychotherapy, said Dr. Michael Davidson, PhD, Director of the Core Issues Trust. In Britain’s main psychotherapeutic organisations, “the person-centred approach is not being respected,” he said.

The Core Issues Trust is a Christian organisation that helps equip Christian ministers to help those with unwanted same-sex attraction and who want to leave the gay lifestyle.

Dr. Davidson told LifeSiteNews.com this week that he has fallen afoul of a “politically motivated” shift within the counselling and psychotherapeutic professional organisations, one that he says is betraying the real needs of clients and patients, and their freedom to make choices.

“I started my training in 2009 with the UK Psychodrama Association, and was very open and explicit about my position, including about my own journey out of homosexuality,” he said.

Nonetheless, two years into his training to become a therapist, Davidson was suddenly presented with an “interim order” telling him he was a threat to “public safety” and was not allowed to practice any type of therapy or even to train and attend classes, pending the outcome of an investigation into his conduct.

Since the publication last summer of the professional guidance, he said, the psychotherapeutic community has created a climate in which therapists who do not toe the official “gay affirming” line, daring to assert that homosexuality is not, or does not have to be a fixed condition, face severe censure, even the loss of their professional credentials.

Dr. Davidson said that the system overrules even the wishes of patients, telling them, in effect, that they must remain in the homosexual lifestyle, whether they want to or not. -- LifeSiteNews