While James
Dobson's Focus on the Family continues to cherry-pick
and distort research on LGBT families, Soulforce and
Truth Wins Out are raising the stakes to expose what
they call a harmful and alarming disinformation
campaign discriminating against American families. A week
after Robynne Sapp and Dotti Berry were arrested as part of
Soulforce's new "Focus on the Facts" campaign,
Truth Wins Out has launched a new Web site, RespectMyResearch.org.
"Dobson's latest op-ed in Time
was the last straw," declared Wayne Besen,
executive director of Truth Wins Out. "I called
five different mainstream researchers, all of whom were
floored that their research was being used to denounce
LGBT families."
Judith Stacey was
one of them. "I've had to spend a lot of time
correcting the record," Stacey confirmed.
"When Dobson says thousand of studies
demonstrate that children do better with a mom and a dad, he
is not talking about research that studied gay and
lesbian parents. He is talking about children who were
raised by two heterosexual parents versus children who
were raised by a single heterosexual parent."
Rather, all of
the major medical and professional associations, including
the American Psychiatric Association, the American
Psychological Association, the American Counseling
Association, the National Association of Social
Workers, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the
American Psychoanalytic Association, and the American
Academy of Family Physicians, have unequivocally
discredited Dobson's claims.
"The
endorsement of these organizations does not represent a
small minority," stated Brian Dew of the
American Counseling Association. Citing numerous
studies from over the last three decades, professional
researchers have consistently demonstrated that optimal
development of a child is not based on orientation of
parents, but on stable attachment to adults.
"Every
time I am asked to debate, I am [pitted
against] commentators like syndicated
conservative columnist Maggie Gallagher," remarked
Stacey. "I am almost never debating a researcher,
because there are no legitimate, credible researchers
that have found the kind of evidence that Dobson and
others use to discredit LGBT parents."
RespectMyResearch.org will be used as a platform to educate
the public and the media. "There is a
difference between balancing opinion and balancing
research in a story," stated Clinton Anderson,
director of the Office of Gay, Lesbian, and Bisexual
Concerns, American Psychological Association.
"No research has come up with a negative conclusion
about gay and lesbian parents, and asking someone to
give their opinion is not balance. The media needs to
be more sophisticated."
As anti-LGBT
family policies proliferate on the state level, Jeff Lutes,
executive director of Soulforce, sees this media and public
education campaign as vital to slashing regressive
forces. "For the past four legislative
sessions, advocates in Texas have been fighting back against
attempts to ban adoption or foster parenting by lesbian,
gay, bisexual, or transgender couples or
individuals," said Lutes. "While child
protection services are praising LGBT foster parents,
legislators are trying to take our rights
away." (Cole Krawitz, The Advocate)
