GAY TRUTH

While pro-family advocates have noted the incredible rate at which the homosexualist movement has gained the political upper hand in the last five years, others are voicing concern about the shrinking “social space” in the public discourse for those who still object to “ gay marriage .” Some pundits on the left and the center-right are warning that as the homosexual movement gains legislative ground, the freedom to object is narrowing and those holding out against it are increasingly under threat. The stunning advances made by the “ gay movement ” some are saying, is not a triumph for social freedom, but for an increasingly brutally enforced social conformism. Left-libertarian British journalist Brendan O’Neill warned  in a column in Spiked , that in 20 years of writing on political issues , “I have never encountered an issue like gay marriage, an issue in which the space for dissent has shrunk so rapidly, and in which the consensus is not only stifling but choking.” ...

Gay Couple with child (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) If you want to know how University of Texas sociologist Mark Regnerus's summer has gone, look no further than The Weekly Standard . On the cover of the conservative magazine's July 30 issue are two hooded henchmen impishly turning the gears on a medieval torture wheel holding Regnerus, sweating beads as he tries to stay in one piece. The cover copy—"Revenge of the Sociologists : The perils of politically incorrect academic research"—hints at the situation sparked by the publication of Regnerus's newest research as well as the broader political discourse over same-sex marriage. The survey, known as the New Family Structures Study (NFSS), is remarkable in its scope. It's a random national sample, considered "the gold standard" of social science surveys. NFSS measures the economic, relational, political, and psychological effects on adults ages 18 to 39 who grew up in families where the father or mot...

Sound public policy requires knowledge of the facts. But recent events show that disagreements about the evidence on hot button issues are often resolved in state capitols, not the ivory tower. In the debate over same-sex marriage and parenting, one of the key empirical questions is whether same-sex relationships harm children. The July issue of  Social Science Research published a study by University of Texas sociologist Mark Regnerus that found that adult children of parents who had same-sex relationships reported more emotional problems than did those who were raised by parents in heterosexual marriages. Political activists on both sides of the same-sex marriage debate jumped on the article. Opponents of same-sex marriage   cited the research  as evidence of the problems of same-sex parenthood.  Social conservatives  jumped on the results as scientific confirmation of their beliefs and intuition. Proponents of gay rights and same-sex marriage, however,...

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