Late yesterday afternoon, a reporter from Channel 27 in Madison called our office and wanted a comment on a story about a study that was released recently supposedly showing that  children conceived through “sperm donors” with lesbian parents excel in comparison to their counterparts in heterosexual families.  We told the reporter that we had not seen the study and were not in a position to comment.

Channel 27 ran the story last night.  Meanwhile, we did our research–with superb help from our great friends and associates at Focus on the Family (in this instance, a blogger/policy expert for Focus’s CitizenLink) and Family Research Council (Tony Perkin’s Washington Update).  Here’s some of what we have found:

• The study was published in the journal Pediatrics and done by the Williams Institute (also referred to at times as the UCLA Foundation), an organization dedicated to advancing the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) agenda.   It is heavily funded by the Gill Foundation, a foundation that exclusively supports LGBT efforts.  Tim Gill is an open homosexual who made his fortune in the software industry (Quark) and is now giving his time and money to promoting homosexuality through his foundation and through his political work in state government across the country (e.g., flipping Wisconsin’s State Assembly in 2008).
• The study’s sample  is not random, is not representative, and is very small. (Lesbian mothers volunteered, and represented only the following geographic areas:  Boston, Washington, D.C., San Francisco.)
• The data were gathered essentially from the mothers themselves and from interviews and questionnaires completed by the children, making the data highly suspect.   (Really.  I”m not making this up.  Quoting from page 1 of the study itself, under heading “Results”:  “According to their mothers’ reports…” )
• The assumptions are faulty.  They assume two mothers does not affect children; any behavioral or psychosocial problems are attributed to “stigmatization.”
• The study basically says men are unnecessary in parenting, in spite of what research continues to show is in the best interest of children–to be reared by their married mother and father.
• The study ignores (hardly surprising) research released last week that shows that children conceived through “sperm donation” have some significant issues and such children who are in the homes of two lesbian women reported that, among other things, they believe it is wrong to intentionally conceive a fatherless child.

You be the judge.  Watch what Channel 27 did with the story–and see if you think they lauded the study or handled it for what it really is–pretty laughable because of its shoddy scientific approach.  But that happens when you set out to do “research” that proves your point.