I was relaxing on vacation in Nova Scotia with my parents when my father called me over to the computer. He pointed to a shocking article about a new "study" written by Walter Schumm, a Kansas State University family studies professor, claiming that children of gay parents were 1.7 to 12.1 times more likely to become gay as the children of heterosexual parents.
AOL's Paul Kix breathlessly trumpeted the supposedly groundbreaking "research" as a "detailed analysis," while positioning Schumm as a martyr to political correctness.
Walter Schumm knows what he's about to do is unpopular: publish a study arguing that gay parents are more likely to raise gay children than straight parents. But the Kansas State University family studies professor has a detailed analysis that past almost aggressively ideological researchers never had.
In truth, Schumm is no brave hero who is pushing the envelope against the establishment. His biased new paper is a disgrace and so shoddy that the terms "Schumm Study" and "Sham Study" could be considered interchangeable.
The goal of Schumm's work is political. He is desperately trying to show that homosexuality is a choice that can be overcome. If he and others of his ilk can prove this, they believe that they can make a powerful case to fearful Americans that LGBT people should be kept away from children and that LGBT students should not receive support, because it might influence their sexual orientation.
It is appalling that AOL's Kix was so gullible that he failed to see the hidden agenda of Schumm or do his homework to find out who Schuum was. Or, maybe his own sympathies are with the anti-gay researcher and opportunistically exploited this paper as a way to further anti-gay lies on a major website?
Once upon a time when there were journalistic standards, Kix would have been fired for media malpractice. However, instead of the unemployment line, hacks like Kix now get headlines on major online services. It is an indictment of the modern media that this story ever saw the light of day, given the tragic and fatal flaws of this so-called "study."
When analyzing Schumm's bogus conclusions, it is critical that people understand that he did not actually produce one shred of genuine research. He simply commented on the academic work of others, inserting his personal prejudices. So, calling this slanted critique a "study" is like confusing a film critic's movie review with the actual production of a movie.
The study itself is betrayed by common sense and reality. If being around gay parents makes a child gay, then how does Schumm explain the inconvenient fact that the vast majority of LGBT adults had heterosexual parents?
Of course, once one starts looking at the actual paper, all of this quickly becomes academic, because the research techniques are so unprofessional that they immediately invalidate the conclusions. The fatal weakness is that Schumm does not draw his samples from other scientific studies, but instead finds them by perusing a random collection of unscientific literary books on gay parenting. This is the kind of "science" that one can do on an off day at Barnes & Noble.
Indeed, the author of one book cited by Schumm, Abigail Garner, purposely selected half of the children featured in her book to be the gay children of gay parents. Yet, Schumm idiotically used this deliberately skewed sample to show that gay parents are more likely to produce gay children.
To run statistics on this non-statistical (or anti-statistical) sample would be like judging the ratio of giraffes to chimpanzees in Africa by comparing the populations selected by the zookeepers at your local zoo," wrote Box Turtle Bulletin Editor Jim Burroway, who carefully debunked the study.
Not surprisingly, Schumm is tied to Paul Cameron whose anti-gay junk science had him expelled from the Nebraska Psychological Association and the American Psychological Association. Cameron's disdain for LGBT people ran so deep that he wanted to brand HIV+ people and exterminate homosexuals.
Yet, knowing his disreputable background, Schumm still elected to be on Cameron's editorial board when he launched his ill-fated online publication, Empirical Journal of Same Sexual Behavior (EJSSB). Schumm also testified in a Florida gay adoption court case alongside Dr. George Rekers, who was recently caught with a male escort he met on RentBoy.com.
The larger question is what disciplinary action does Kansas State University plan to take against Schumm, considering the unethical and dishonorable nature of his shoddy work? His unscientific screed is an academic embarrassment and blight on the reputation of this university.
Unfortunately, no matter what happens, it is too late. An AOL hack teamed up with an anti-gay quack and the damage is done. In light of the recent gay teen suicides, one would hope that more care would be taken before irresponsible and inaccurate studies are reported and celebrated in the mainstream media.
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Gay bashers could claim that LGBT adults with hetero parents were exposed to homosexuality elsewhere than at home. I don't agree of course but I found your inference not logical and I want to encourage you to sharpen your argument.
Also, having a larger proportion of children from LGBT families become gay (assuming good statistics), could merely be the sign that these kids are freer to express their sexuality and nothing more. We don't have to deny the validity of the data (again assuming it's good data) because regressives assume that gays issued from LGBT families are so because they were led into it by their parents.
This was exactly the approach taken by the "proponents" (proxies for the defendants, who refused to defend the lawsuit) in the Proposition 8 trial earlier this year. While the plaintiffs' expert witnesses had satisfied all the legal criteria for expert witnessses, "experts" on the other side admitted that they'd just looked at websites and "talked to people."
These snake-oil salesmen have already put tens of thousands of lives at risk in Africa with their bogus "studies" and are causing untold pain to our own kids at home.
The sooner these yokels are exposed for the frauds they are, the better.
Obvioulsy, there would be difficulties if the majority of people were gay. It would be somewhat more difficult or at least more costly to reproduce. But, with modern technology (and heck, even the old fashioned way), we wouldn't die out as a species. However, no one is stating that such a huge shift is even close to taking place.
We ought to examine why this study might be jarring to people and what that says about how we truly view gay people in general.
I can here the evangelicals praising the scince in this study (They pick and choose the science they believe has merit.
Reply: I am gay whether I have the legal right to do so or not. The law in terms of my sexual orientation is completely irrelevant. I am just as gay, whether there are legal rights such as marriage, or the death penalty, such as in Iran.
The right to express my true self is dependent on the laws of free nations. Only totalitarian regimes would dictate such expression. This is why the more free and prospers the nation (or state for that matter) the more LGB rights they have. Meanwhile, most places with prohibitions against LGBT people are moral, cultural, spiritual and economic cesspools and backwaters.
Exactly. One's religion is a choice, and we respect everyone's right to make that choice. One's political views are a choice, and we respect everyone's right to make that choice.
The fact that we even continue to debate whether homosexuality is a "choice" demonstrates that we as a society are not yet mature enough to approach the issue of sexual orientation rationally.
I have no argument otherwise.. I totally believe a person is born gay or straight. I mean, seriously, with the idiots like who did this study and all the persecution why would ANYONE think a person would CHOOSE to live a very difficult lifestyle?? Its moronic!!!
Yes, gay people can choose to deceive themselves and others. They live as liars, be completely miserable, and make the life of an opposite spouse miserable because there is zero attraction. And, really, what would the point be other than crushing souls, ruining lives and causing an untold number of divorces in the name of family values.
Sexual orientation is not a choice. People do not "choose" who they are attracted to and fall in love with. It is sad that you would make such an argument that serves no societal interest except to support religion-based bigotry.
What kind of human beings actively participate in the brutalization, degradation, humiliation and abuse of their very own gay children and have the audacity to attribute those immoral behaviors to God?
I would warn every religious individual to use extreme caution in carrying out acts of dehumanization, violence and degradation against gay citizens and using God's name to justify it.
For if what religious folks believe is true, and if we all will stand before God one day to be judged, and when God asks those who presented themselves to the world as people of God why they abused, degraded, dehumanized and brutalized HIS gay children, what will they tell him?
That they did those things in his name to HONOR him?
THE PROBLEM is to convince them it is not sin for a Gay person to do what God put into his/her heart
THE ONGOING CRIMES AND FRAUDS AND ABUSES AND GENOCIDE AGAINST GAYS AND OUR FAMILIES ARE BLOOD ON THE HANDS OF ALL AMERICANS WHO'VE FOSTERED THESE LIES AND LIARS FOR 40 YRS. LOOKS LIKE NIXON AND THE CIA WON A LONG TIME AGO in the fight to turn the US into a haven of big corporations and foreign Talebangelicals moneys to destroy our Constitution from abuses of speech and science and dogma to keep perpetrating a national hate crime 24/7 on our people. STOP IT NOW AND PROSECUTE THESE PERPETRATORS OF DAILY INTENTIONAL FRAUDS....OR BE THE PROVEN ENEMY OF ALL FREE MEN AND WOMEN who are not Pavlov piglet offspring of insidious indoctrination.