The organization GLAAD, which is committed to making sure no one in any media venue ever says anything untoward about homosexuality, has launched a new campaign aimed at a number of my friends and colleagues, as well as myself.

They do not like that media channels have asked any of us about our views on anything having to do with homosexuality and that our answers do not line up with GLAAD orthodoxy. Therefore, they believe we should be silenced. They say their effort is only to hold commentators like us “accountable” for what we say, but nowhere on their site do they try to correct or refute anything that any of us have said.

Most of the comments by the folks they are targeting are just plain, everyday views that many, non-hateful, not-bigoted, good citizens hold about homosexuality and so-called same-sex marriage. GLAAD is upset that people would say such things out loud and any media source – liberal, conservative, mainstream, Christian, Jewish, whatever – might print them. Read their “smoking-gun” evidence listed under each targeted spokesperson for yourself and see how many of them are really a threat to civil society. A few might not demonstrate the smartest reasoning in the world, but if we ban all unrefined quotes in the media…

Most serve to demonstrate GLAAD’s unreasonableness. They take Jim Daly, President of Focus on the Family, to task for having the audacity to say some gay activists want to limit the speech of others. And yes, he did say it.

“Unfortunately, this is becoming a pattern for those that oppose Christianity. They want to control our speech in the public square… It really is a form of fascism.”

Imagine. Doubtful GLAAD fully appreciates the irony of their selection of this quote.

Read this this morning… Beautiful on the foretelling of the Christ.

A shoot will come up from the stump of Jesse;
from his roots a Branch will bear fruit.
The Spirit of the LORD will rest on him—
the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding,
the Spirit of counsel and of might,
the Spirit of the knowledge and fear of the LORD—
and he will delight in the fear of the LORD.

He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes,
or decide by what he hears with his ears;
but with righteousness he will judge the needy,
with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth.
He will strike the earth with the rod of his mouth;
with the breath of his lips he will slay the wicked.
Righteousness will be his belt
and faithfulness the sash around his waist.

-Isaiah 11: 1-5

Yes, baby's shirt: "I was hatched by a couple of chicks."

Here are two important research reports I’ve just completed on the most recent published literature on same-sex parented families. It reveals very important aspects of the research that serious students of the family should know about, but that major media outlets have missed by clearly doing journalism by press-release.

The two reports are also here and here.

1)      The first analysis looks at the current research (conducted by same-sex family friendly scholars) showing that girls raised by lesbian moms are dramatically more likely to report identifying as either bi- or lesbian than girls raised in heterosexual-headed households (49% vs. 7% respectively).  The most recent study explains “daughters of lesbian mothers were significantly more likely to have had same-sex contact” compared with peers from heterosexual-parented homes. Boys in a few studies were more sexually reticent.

Another study showed that 64% of young adults from lesbian homes ever considered same-sex erotic relationships, while only 17% from heterosexual families did.

The lesbian-parented girls are also remarkably more likely to have used emergency contraception (35% vs. 5%) indicating a higher prevalence of careless and opportunistic sexual activity.

Specifically, young adults raised by lesbian moms are:

• More than 2xs more likely to have s-s attraction
• 2xs more likely to identify as gay/lesbian/bi
• 3xs more likely to consider s-s relationships
• 7xs more likely to have considered s-s relationships in past
• 6xs more likely to have had s-s relationships

2)      The second analysis examines the background and methodology of the National Longitudinal Lesbian Family Study (NLLFS).  This is the longest, largest study of same-sex families to date, and most of the research on same-sex parenting coming out today issues from this study.

Therefore, it’s important to examine the methodological strengths and weaknesses of this study.  This makes for quite a story that’s not been told anywhere.  The methodology is disturbingly poor.

All the lesbian couples (representing 84 families) are, by design of the study, strongly connected to lesbian political culture, as they were all drafted into the study through admitted lesbian-activist channels, coming only from the Boston, DC, and San Fran areas.  Most are highly educated, 82% upper-to-middle class, and 94% are White.  Most were in their mid-thirties at start of study and the birth of the children of the home.  What’s more, 80% of the study participants said – when asked – they would choose to be lesbians if such a thing were a choice.

The study is structured so that the study population are highly politically-motivated mothers, knowing they are participating in an important lesbian study. And the methodology has the moms self-report much of their children’s well-being.  Given this, the study shows – and has been reported widely – that these children do better in many ways than children with mothers and fathers! And while the break-up rates of these mothers were much higher than mom/dad homes (56% vs. 36%), the moms report their children showed NO adverse effects from the family break-up!!  Of course, both of these findings are completely at odds with the larger body of literature on family form and child well-being.

Here’s a new article from Glenn that NRO posted today on how marriage is unfortunately becoming an issue of class division in America.

Some classes are more likely to marry and this helps them improve their economic and class standing. Others are not marrying and this is dramatically harming their standing.

These findings add to the truth that marriage is not just an issue of traditionalism or moralism, but very much an important issue of social justice.

Here’s a concise summary of a major new study from anthropologists and economists from the US and Canada on why monogamy is increasing as a social norm in most developed nations when the very people who make a nation’s laws are men who have both the power and resources to gather many, many wives.

Their answer is sheer pragmatics. Monogamy simply makes for a better, safer society.

A few pictures from my trip to Ottawa this week to visit my friends at the Institute of Marriage and Family Canada.

Parliament Hill

Glenn reading in the corner, when he should have been greeting members of Parliament. But it was a good book.

Bascillica of Notre Dame, with Huge Honkin Spider

Parliament Hill at sunrise

Today the Susan G. Komen Foundation unfortunately reversed its decision regarding Planned Parenthood under remarkable pressure from left-leaning groups. But it’s unclear whether actual funding will be restored, according to a Komen Foundation board member.

Planned Parenthood says it needs funding like this because they provide things beside abortion and contraceptive services, things like mammograms. (See PP President Cecile Richards saying so in the video below.)

Well, one young woman tried to find a PP clinic in various major U.S. cities who performed these legitimate health-care services. She didn’t find any.

The bulk of PP’s breast-health work is simply referring their clients to outside facilities. “Sorry, no help for you here.” In fact yesterday, Susan G. Komen Race for the Cure CEO Nancy Brinker and President Elizabeth Thompson revealed they halted funding to PP for this very reason.

“We have decided not to fund, wherever possible, pass-through grants. We were giving them money, they were sending women out for mammograms. What we would like to have are clinics where we can directly fund mammograms. “

Komen concluded that PP didn’t qualify as direct providers. It is difficult to find hard numbers on how many PP clinics actually provide mammograms, but most data indicates that the overwhelming majority of PP clinics do not provide such services; screenings that are unarguably so fundamental and important to women’s health. And that is exactly what PP says it all about.

Make no mistake. Planned Parenthood is nearly all about abortion. You can hear a PP staffer say so in the video above: “We are primarily a surgical facility.”

Let’s hope that Komen stays focused on women’s health, committed to those partner organizations who actually provide women with genuine health care. Of late, they are having to spend rather their time and energy responding to political thuggery. And that’s a shame.