Social Distortion: Misinformation at Its Finest

Media Matters is a non-profit organization that is dedicated to "comprehensively monitoring, analyzing, and correcting conservative misinformation in the US Media". These folks go through the media (written, audio and visual) with a fine-toothed comb and find any discrepancies. They've documented times when a politician has said something that directly contradicts what they'd said months earlier, when newscasters are blatantly favoring one side of a story or misconstruing facts and when obvious points are completely disregarded. These people rock. Most of the information that I found about the issue below is thanks to them. Please support them in any way possible.

I'm sure we've all heard about Mary Cheney's pregnancy. Yes, she's a lesbian and has a life partner. Yes, they used a donor. And yes, she is a declared Republican (which, as it were, happens sometimes with the gay community). The media jumped all over it and haven't really let up since. It's opened up the debate on gay parenting in a much more public light, which means that closed-minded conservatives get to construe hard facts and evidence however they wish. For example, remember when Kerry supposedly "outed" Mary Cheney in the 3rd presidential debate in 2004 (even though she was already publicly out)? The media had a field day with it and lambasted him for being insensitive and for invading her privacy. Well, 2 years later, Mary Cheney announces her pregnancy, and the media couldn't jump all over it fast enough. Suddenly, it was OK to invade her privacy to no end. Interesting.

One certain crazy conservative who took advantage of the situation is James Dobson, founder and chairman of Focus on the Family. In a recent article in TIME magazine, Dobson took the opportunity to spout his conservative nonsense about how children thrive and grow best in mother-father parenthoods and that, as his title states, "Two Mommies Is One Too Many." He sited studies on the importance of a father figure done by Dr. Kyle Pruett of Yale Medical School as well as from educational psychologist, Carol Gilligan. Did he represent these studies correctly? Of course not. In Dr. Pruett's book, Fatherneed: Why Father Care Is as Essential as Mother Care for Your Child, he states that "What we do know is that there is no reason for concern about the development or psychological competence of children living with gay fathers. It is love that binds relationships, not sex." Both Dr. Pruett and Ms. Gilligan have separately stated that their research was twisted and distorted by Dobson and that none of their collective evidence points to the conclusions that Dobson came to, namely that gay parents are inadequate. Ms. Gilligan went so far as to request that Dobson never use her research ever again and demanded an apology. And yet thousands and thousands of people will use Dobson's words as fact.

The American Psychological Association stated all the way back in 2004 that "[t]here is no scientific basis for concluding that lesbian mothers or gay fathers are unfit parents on the basis of their sexual orientation." Also, " Overall, results of research suggest that the development, adjustment, and well-being of children with lesbian and gay parents do not differ markedly from that of children with heterosexual parents." You can read their full study here. The American Psychological Association is a pretty reputable source, don't you think? I'm probably going to listen to them a little more than some crazy conservative who founded an organization with an extremely deceptive name.

PS- For a nice counterpoint to Dobson's op-ed, check out what Jennifer Chrisler, the Executive Director of Family Pride, had to say.