Funding science

A year ago a nasty "study" was released claiming to prove that gays were bad parents. It was quickly debunked. It is back in the news because all that debunking prompted the editor of the journal in which it appeared to audit how the paper was approved for publication. The auditor, a member of the journal's editorial board, found huge conflicts of interest with the paper's reviewers, problems with the paper's funding source (a Fundie institute), and suspicious rush to publication. I'll let you read the details.

But there are two things to note:

The first is that the auditor sees two chilling developments: (1) Congress is discussing they might cut the entire social science budget of the National Science Foundation. That means the gov't won't be able to fund research into social sciences. And (2) the funding for such research by Fundie institutes is increasing. As in the case above, such "research" will likely have a conclusion before study begins. Meaning it is science that pushes an agenda and may be the only source of funding for such work.

The second thing to note is in how that original flawed study is being used. We know it was published in time to be used in last fall's marriage equality battles and as "research" for the cases before the Supremes. Commenter (and gadfly on this case) Straight Grandmother reports the study has also been used against us in Puerto Rico, France, Belize, Jamaica, and Croatia.