Family Research Council attacks same-sex marriage with ‘counterfeit’ facts « SpeakEasy

http://prideinutah.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/gay-marriage-hands-and-rings.j...


Perusing the Family Research Council’s webpage is always a bonanza for me because there is always something there which can be pointed out as an example of how religious right groups distort studies and current events to push the false “radical homosexual activists are hurting America” narrative.

And today didn’t disappoint. There is a piece, Ten Facts About Counterfeit Marriage, which supposedly gives a point-by-point reason as to why gay marriage is wrong.

Now many of the points are basic arguments with no facts backing them up as to why heterosexual marriage is “pure as the driven snow” and how gays and lesbians want to drive a bunch of tire tracks into this snow.

But when FRC starts spouting studies, the organization gets into trouble in terms of accuracy:

�� Many homosexuals and their sex partners may sincerely believe they can be good parents. But children are not guinea pigs for grand social experiments in redefining marriage, and should not be placed in settings that are unsuitable for raising children.

�� Transient relationships: While a high percentage of married couples remain married for up to 20 years or longer, with many remaining wedded for life, the vast majority of homosexual relationships are short-lived and transitory. This has nothing to do with alleged “societal oppression.” A study in the Netherlands , a gay-tolerant nation that has legalized homosexual marriage, found the average duration of a homosexual relationship to be one and a half years.

�� Serial promiscuity: Studies indicate that while three-quarters or more of married couples remain faithful to each other, homosexual couples typically engage in a shocking degree of promiscuity. The same Dutch study found that “committed” homosexual couples have an average of eight sexual partners (outside of the relationship) per year. Children should not be placed in unstable households with revolving bedroom doors.

But the study FRC is referring to had nothing to do with same-sex marriage or same-sex households with children for a number of reasons.

The study was conducted by one Maria Xiridou of the Amsterdam Municipal Health Service. Her study did not look at gay marriage but was designed to “access the relative contribution of steady and casual partnerships to the incidence of HIV infection among homosexual men in Amsterdam and to determine the effect of increasing sexually risky behaviours among both types of partnerships in the era of highly active antiretroviral therapy.”

For this study, Dr. Xiridou received her information from the Amsterdam Cohort Study of Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and AIDS Among Homosexual Men. To gain this information, researchers studied 1,800 gay men between the years of 1984- 2000.

Same sex marriage was legalized in the Netherlands in 2001, thus making the information irrelevant to points about gay marriage. Information for the Amsterdam Cohort Study is found here.

Furthermore, lesbians were not included in the study and, as far as it is known, there were no questions in the study regarding lgbt households with children.

Now far be it from me to start pointing fingers, but I noticed how cleverly FRC pushed that talking point without actually stating that the couples in the study were married.

Also where would the FRC piece be without a phony panic story about what could happen if same-sex marriage became legal across the country:

The rest is here > http://blogs.alternet.org/speakeasy/2010/09/09/family-research-council-attacks-s...