Immorality and twisted research

Another anti-gay bigot twists a scientific finding. Not exactly a surprise these days, but these things must be exposed far and wide. Dr. Theodora Sirota studied attachment issues of daughters by comparing the attitudes of daughters of gay men with daughters of straight men.

Aha! pounced Dr. Rick Fitzgibbons of NARTH. That proves that gay parents are harmful to the kids!

Not so fast, says Sirota. These gay men were trying to maintain a straight marriage and the daughters had attachment issues because they saw how their mothers suffered in a marriage in which the husband wasn't really attracted to the wife. Thus the study proves that forcing gay men into straight marriages is what causes the problems in the kids. In addition, the study did not look at gay couples. Fitzgibbons is misusing her research to draw that conclusion. Stop doing that!

Fitzgibbons didn't give up easily. He responded rather rudely (reproduced in the comments) that her methodology contains a "confound" -- there are actually two open variables in her data, so she can't claim that simply being gay doesn't harm the child.

Other commenters were quick to point out that if the data does have a confound in it, Fitzgibbons can't make his claim either.

Rob Tisinai of Box Turtle Bulletin wrote up this spat because Sirota asked him for help in exposing the dishonesty of Fitzgibbons. Rob closes with two points of interest.

"First (and this is the minor one), every time our opponents unrepentantly twist someone’s research, they admit they have no honest case."

Second, Tisinai points out the major issue is the immorality of what Fitzgibbons has done. Sirota's research has been abused. Gay parents have been libeled. Gay youth are traumatized. Fitzgibbons is lying.

Tisinai points out what I commented on recently: We can win our rights through claims of morality, not just on tolerance. Gay relationships can be just as moral as straight ones. It is immoral to deny us equal rights. Our opposition must resort to immorality to "prove" we don't deserve rights.