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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsAnother Bad Gay Parenting Study
On the heels of Mark Regnerus atrocious study of gay parents we have another one, from Canadian economist Douglas Allen. Philip Cohen, a sociologist from the University of Maryland, calls the results of the paper meaningless and details all the reasons why on his website analyzing the paper. A couple of the criticisms:
That problem is so bad that you dont need to worry about the problem of who raised these young adults, which is supposed to be the issue in the first place.
They live with their parents. But for how long have they done that, and for how long have their parents been in gay or lesbian relationships? We cant know. Allen controls for whether the child has moved in the last year or five years, but we dont know if the parents moved with them. Controlling for whether they have moved doesnt address this. A full 60% of the lesbian-mother kids and 39% of the gay-father kids have moved in the last five years, compared with just 24% of the different-sex-married-parent kids. Their life stories are in these mobility histories, and the paper cant say anything about that.
They live with their parents. But for how long have they done that, and for how long have their parents been in gay or lesbian relationships? We cant know. Allen controls for whether the child has moved in the last year or five years, but we dont know if the parents moved with them. Controlling for whether they have moved doesnt address this. A full 60% of the lesbian-mother kids and 39% of the gay-father kids have moved in the last five years, compared with just 24% of the different-sex-married-parent kids. Their life stories are in these mobility histories, and the paper cant say anything about that.
full: http://freethoughtblogs.com/dispatches/2013/10/15/another-bad-gay-parenting-study/
George Pyle of the Salt Lake Tribune writes about this "study":
This has been seized upon by those who are very nervous about the growing acceptance of same-sex marriage as proof that it can harm innocent children.
Except. There are no Canadian children old enough to have graduated from high school who have lived their entire lives in a household headed by two women or two men who are married to each other. Same-sex marriage has only been legal in Canada since 2005.
Compare the graduation success of children raised in cohabitating opposite-sex households to those raised in same-sex households, and the difference all but evaporates. Come back in 20 years, when a significant cohort of children of same-sex households have been raised in unions cemented by marriage, and well talk.
Or maybe we wont. Since when do we base our acceptance of other people on statistical models?
Blacks drop out of high school at higher rates than whites. Hispanics drop out at higher rates than blacks. So do we just stop trying to educate blacks or Hispanics? Do we try to prohibit blacks and Hispanics from reproducing, in marriage or out?
Except. There are no Canadian children old enough to have graduated from high school who have lived their entire lives in a household headed by two women or two men who are married to each other. Same-sex marriage has only been legal in Canada since 2005.
Compare the graduation success of children raised in cohabitating opposite-sex households to those raised in same-sex households, and the difference all but evaporates. Come back in 20 years, when a significant cohort of children of same-sex households have been raised in unions cemented by marriage, and well talk.
Or maybe we wont. Since when do we base our acceptance of other people on statistical models?
Blacks drop out of high school at higher rates than whites. Hispanics drop out at higher rates than blacks. So do we just stop trying to educate blacks or Hispanics? Do we try to prohibit blacks and Hispanics from reproducing, in marriage or out?
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Another Bad Gay Parenting Study (Original Post)
alp227
Oct 2013
OP
yewberry
(6,530 posts)1. It's pretty unbelievable
... the lengths that people will go to to find evidence that backs up their own biases.
What these fools ignore is that gay and lesbian families are far, far less likely to have children without having planned them. Not a lot of shotgun marriages among this population. Imagine a whole world of planned, wanted children? What a terrible thought!
Zorra
(27,670 posts)2. More proof that conservatives are extremely stupid. Go figure. nt
MisterP
(23,730 posts)3. in all too many fields