Remember Mark Regnerus, the University of Texas at Austin Sociology professor whose work showing children don’t do as well with same-sex parents has been widely discredited? Even the State of Utah, which is defending its ban on marriage for same-sex couples today in court, has backed away from his findings.
In a filing last night with the U.S. 10th Court of Appeals, Gene Schaerr, the lawyer arguing for the ban, wrote:
The Regnerus study did not examine as its sole focus the outcomes of children raised in same-sex households but, because of sample limitations inherent in the field of study at this point, examined primarily children who acknowledged having a parent who had engaged in a same-sex relationship. Thus, the Regnerus study cannot be viewed as conclusively establishing that raising a child in a same-sex household produces outcomes that are inferior to those produced by man-woman parenting arrangements.
This comes just a few weeks after the federal judge in Michigan’s marriage case wrote that “The court finds Regnerus’s testimony entirely unbelievable and not worthy of serious consideration.”
Schaerr seems, however, to try and shrug off Regnerus’ relevance to the case, saying:
First, we wish to emphasize the very limited relevance to this case of the comparison addressed by Professor Regnerus. As the State’s briefing makes clear, the State’s principal concern is the potential long-term impact of a redefinition of marriage on the children of heterosexual parents. The debate over man-woman versus same-sex parenting has little if any bearing on that issue, given that being raised in a same-sex household would normally not be one of the alternatives available to children of heterosexual parents.
That’s a very interesting twist. It used to be that those fighting against marriage equality were trying to show that children didn’t do as well with same-sex parents. Having lost that battle — and I think we can take Schaerr’s filing as a concession of defeat — they are now trying to show that “redefining” marriage will somehow harm children of different-sex parents. Because it will persuade the straight ones to start same-sex relationships despite their inherent identities to the contrary? Not gonna happen. Because it will convince the LGB ones to be true to themselves? Hooray. Because it reinforces to all that marriage is about love? Yes.
