Regnerus Speaks at Ruth Institute Conference

Mark Regnerus, who authored a notorious study on what he referred to as "lesbian and gay families," recently spoke at The Ruth Institute's "It Takes a Family" conference this past weekend.

The Ruth Institute is a project of the anti-equality National Organization for Marriage. Its "About Ruth" web page for some reason is entitled, "Making Marriage Cool," even though, in my opinion, the Institute does precisely the opposite, for instance, by selling "one man one woman" "party kits" and "tote bags."

Also speaking at the conference was Ruth Institute founder and president Jennifer Roback Morse. In addition to being quite the proponent of inequality, Morse has also engaged in gaslighting against the LGBT community by suggesting that hatred of gay people does not actually exist in those who oppose marriage equality, has admitted that she opposes same-sex marriage because (her words) "anal sex is icky," and has invented absurd lingo to refer to her political opponents (eg- "the Life Style Left").

Others speaking were Robert Gagnon (whose opinions you can read all about here), the National Organization for Marriage's Thomas Peters, and Alana Newman (who wrote a controversial post calling "older or infertile women, and gay men," those who use surrogacy and egg donation, "the new sexual predators. And then wrote an awkward follow-up.)

So, what's the point of today's post?

Well, The American Independent has already obtained documents and emails from a public records request showing that the widely-critiqued Regnerus study was timed to influence "major decisions of the Supreme Court" and that, contrary to language in the study purporting otherwise, The Witherspoon Institute, which opposes same-sex marriage, may have played a larger role in the study than claimed.

Associating with the Ruth Institute and advocates who are notorious for uncivil-y opposing same-sex marriage is not a great way way to demonstrate that one is just a mere, impartial observer of the facts about "lesbian and gay families."

Neither does making statements like the following, which one conservative-leaning college news source cites Regnerus as saying at the conference:

“Sex doesn’t explain the world, religion does,” Regnerus said. “Sex will come up short.” 

Oh. Really. Sometimes I just have to laugh at the simple-minded way some conservative-leaning religious folks imagine that other people are like. I mean, are there even hoards of people out there claiming that sex is the big thing that explains the world? Is the battle for how people interpret reality really one of Religion v. Sex? Alrighty then.