"Political Science"
By: J. Hunter
Conservatives are criticized for
being “anti-science,” a charge that grew stronger last month when the American
Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) released a policy statement affirming that children
living with same-sex parents “receive similar parenting whether they are raised
by parents of the same or different genders.”[1] This
claim purports to be evidenced by science, which, if true, would contribute to
the left’s argument that conservatives reject rationality whole cloth. Of
course, though, AAP’s findings are unscientific and continue a liberal
tradition of using science as a propaganda tool to further political ambitions.
Peter Sprigg, a senior fellow at
the Family Research Council, criticizes AAP’s statement saying that it is
“clearly driven more by political correctness than by the actual state of
research on [the] issue.”[2] “An
overwhelming body of social science research has shown conclusively that
children raised by their own biological mother and father, committed to one
another in a lifelong marriage, are happier, healthier, and more prosperous
than children in any other family structure,” according to Sprigg. Perhaps it
is this “overwhelming body of research” that has informed American courts for
years and inspired them to favor biological parents over foster and adopted
parents.
Echoing Sprigg’s claims, the
American College of Pediatricians (ACP) issued a statement rejecting AAP’s
conclusion. “The American College of Pediatricians reaffirms that the intact,
functional family consisting of a married (female) mother and (male) father
provides the best opportunity for children…The College, therefore, disputes the
AAP claim that supporting same-sex unions promotes the ‘well-being of
children.’”
ACP even criticizes the scientific
research that undergirds the AAP statement. President Dr. Den Trumbull says,
“No one concerned with the well-being of children can reasonably ignore the
evidence for maintaining the current standard, nor can they or we ignore the
equally strong evidence that harm to children can result if the current
standards are rejected.”
Equally strong evidence that harm
may come to children raised in same sex households?
An ACP report on Homosexual
Parenting claims that domestic violence in same sex households is two to three
times more common than in households with married heterosexual couples.
Same-sex partnerships are “significantly more prone to dissolution” than
traditional marriages, “with the average same-sex relationship lasting only two
to three years.” Furthermore, the tendency for homosexuals to experience mental
illness, engage in substance abuse, exhibit suicidal tendencies, and live
shortened life spans than heterosexuals is not a function of societal disdain
of the homosexual lifestyle, but exists,
too, “at inordinately high levels among homosexuals in cultures where the
practice is more widely accepted.”[3]
Clearly, despite the AAP’s
claims, the science is not settled on same-sex parentage. But, is it clear that
same-sex marriage would be devastating to child welfare?
Dr. Jason Richwine, of the
Heritage Foundation, writes that “the main challenge to research on the
children of parents in same-sex relationships has been simply finding enough of
them to analyze in the first place.”[4]
The ACP seconds that notion: “Data on the long-term outcomes of children placed
in same-sex households is sparse and gives reason for concern.”
Given what is available, though,
the data contradicts AAP’s basis for endorsement. “Studies that appear to
indicate neutral to favorable child outcomes from same-sex parenting have
critical design flaws,” says the ACP. In 2005, the American Psychological
Association (APA) stated that no study has found children reared by homosexual
parents “to be disadvantaged in any significant respect relative to children of
heterosexual parents.”[5]
Mark Regnerus, a sociologist at University of Texas, challenged that sweeping
claim when he released a study in June of 2012 that used a large nationally
representative dataset. Regnerus’ study found that “children from same-sex
households experienced more negative adult outcomes compared with children from
intact biological families.”[6]
Regnerus’ study was met with “remarkably hostile and unscientific backlash.”[7]
The AAP, and those who attacked
Regnerus’ work on grounds other than his methodology, have done a disservice to
the name of science and to its place in American discourse. For the political
left to try to use science as a tool to bludgeon its opponents can be
expected—politics is blood-sport, after all. Those of us outside of the
political realm are political animals nonetheless, scientists included. But it
is wrong for scientists to bend research to support a political agenda as
appears to be occurring on the issue of same-sex parentage.
Furthermore, the slander that
conservatives are, by definition, against science is an onerous and pernicious
lie. Conservatives in many cases fight the use of science as a propaganda tool,
and unfortunately their skepticism of some realms of the scientific community
is warranted. The nation suffers when politics so pervades science that
political factions become the watchdogs determining scientific validity.
Liberals and conservatives can peaceably disagree about political philosophy,
but they should not live in separate planes of reality.
Article
Sources:
[1] http://pediatrics.aappublications.org/content/early/2013/03/18/peds.2013-0376.full.pdf+html
[2] http://cnsnews.com/news/article/american-academy-pediatrics-announces-support-same-sex-marriage
[3] http://www.acpeds.org/the-college-speaks/position-statements/parenting-issues/homosexual-parenting-is-it-time-for-change
[4] http://blog.heritage.org/2013/03/22/academy-of-pediatrics-endorses-same-sex-marriage-but-science-not-so-sure/
[5] http://www.apa.org/pi/lgbt/resources/parenting-full.pdf
[6] http://ac.els-cdn.com/S0049089X12000610/1-s2.0-S0049089X12000610-main.pdf?_tid=bb3b5d98-9b16-11e2-9396-00000aab0f27&acdnat=1364853450_3600ea01431414200c84828a9e7d70c2
[7] http://www.heritage.org/research/reports/2012/10/the-regnerus-study-social-science-on-new-family-structures-met-with-intolerance
Photo Sources: "Same sex fathers 1" from http://static.ddmcdn.com/gif/blogs/dnews-files-2013-03-gay-parents-660.jpg; "Same sex fathers 2" from http://blog.lib.umn.edu/meyer769/myblog/gay-parents-3.jpg; "Mark Regnerus" from http://chronicle.com/blogs/percolator/files/2012/07/6985657.jpg
