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Showing posts with the label Bernard Friedman

All the gay parenting studies are flawed

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Friday’s federal district court ruling that struck down Michigan’s ban on same-sex marriage was the first such decision to center on same-sex parenting research. Judge Bernard Friedman utterly dismissed the testimony of University of Texas Sociology Prof. Mark Regnerus , whose controversial research purports to show disadvantages for children being raised by lesbian and gay couples. Friedman called Regnerus’s testimony “entirely unbelievable and not worthy of serious consideration.” Indeed, media and LGBT organizations have repeatedly declared the Regnerus study to be “flawed,” which it is. But all the gay parenting studies to date have been flawed, some even deeply flawed in their objectivity, methodology, and focus. In preparing for this essay, I read more than 50 studies that supposedly “prove” same-sex parenting is completely equal to opposite-sex parenting. Every single bit of research had at least one of the substantial drawbacks I outline below. Can LGBT scholars be obje

Judge rules Michigan’s marriage protection amendment unconstitutional, but appeals court issues stay

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DETROIT, March 24, 2014 – Judge Bernard Friedman struck down Michigan's state constitutional marriage protection amendment late Friday afternoon. But that does not mean the state will recognize such unions as legal marriages yet. In 2004, some 59 percent of Michigan voters amended the state constitution to read: “To secure and preserve the benefits of marriage for our society and for future generations of children, the union of one man and one woman in marriage shall be the only agreement recognized as a marriage or similar union for any purpose.” This was enacted “for future generations of children.” Judge Bernard Friedman was named to the bench in 1988 by President Ronald Reagan April DeBoer and Jayne Rowse, a lesbian couple, sued for the right to adopt one another's children. On Friday Judge Friedman, a Reagan appointee, ruled that the state's amendment, supported by 2.7 million Michigan residents, violated the U.S. Constitution, paving the way for homosexua

Prof. Regnerus says Michigan judge showed bias in ruling allowing same-sex ‘marriage’

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DETROIT, MI , March 31, 2014  – Dr. Mark Regnerus , whose conclusions about same-sex "marriage" were dismissed in last week's ruling on the matter by Judge Bernard Friedman , is fighting back. "I frankly don't understand why the judge elected to pass on a discussion of some of the very real concerns our research raised," Regnerus said. Regnerus says Friedman "chose to privilege certain scholars as well as research that leaned on self-selected samples." Friedman ruled that same-sex "marriage" should be legal in Michigan , overturning the state's ban on those relationships. Gov. Rick Snyder has said  he will not validate about 300 same-sex "marriages"  until the state's attorney general has exhausted his legal defense of the state.  Friedman's decision was temporarily "stayed" by the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals , pending the state's appeal. Nominated by President Ronald Reagan in 1988 ,