NEWS: Mark Regnerus Is ‘Sad,’ Dan Savage Is Laughing, Joan Walsh Sees A ‘Clusterfuck’

➤Mark Regnerus (image, right,) author of the flawed anti-gay parenting “study,” is “sad” that his own university has opened an inquiry into his infamous “study,” thanks to New Civil Rights Movement writer Scott Rose, says The Daily Texan, the newspaper of the University of Texas, Austin.

Scott Rose, a New York City-based investigative journalist and blogger for the pro-gay rights website The New Civil Rights Movement, prompted a UT inquiry in an open letter to the University published online June 24. In his letter, Rose said Regnerus’ study violates UT’s academic dishonesty policy, because he accepted money from politically active groups and purposefully used flawed data collection methods in his study.

Rose also stated Regnerus acted “in bad faith” as a member of the scientific community and questioned whether or not Regnerus engaged in “improper relationships” with the groups funding the study.

➤ Almost 30,000 people have signed a Change.org petition to impeach Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas.

➤ Dan Savage has written a few words on the news that anti-gay Christian rocker and youth minister Bradlee Dean has to pay Rachel Maddow‘s legal fees after he tried to sue her for defamation.

➤ “Texas was recently ranked worst in the country for health care delivery by the federal Agency for Health Care Research and Quality, scoring “weak” or “very weak” in nine of 12 categories,” yet “Gov. Rick Perry (R) announced that Texas won’t create a state insurance exchange nor accept expanded Medicaid funds outlined in the Affordable Care Act.”

➤ Former SNL star and current Tea party wing nut Victoria Jackson said “It’s the end of the world” upon learning that the Pentagon hosts a pro-gay event for Pride month.

➤ “Yesterday at the National Council of La Raza (NCLR)’s annual conference, twenty-one leading national Hispanic/Latino organizations announced their endorsement of a first-of-its kind, comprehensive public-education campaign called ‘Familia es Familia,‘ which aims to strengthen Latino voices to build support within the Latino community for acceptance of their LGBT family members,” writes GLAAD’s Brian Pacheco.

➤ Governor Rick Scott’s administration has hidden the fact that Florida has been experiencing the worst tuberculosis outbreak in two decades, which has specially harmed black men, as it rushed to close the leading hospital in the state that treats tuberculosis six months early.

➤ “Many retailers are turning their attention to gays and lesbians, a group that wields substantial buying power but isn’t fully integrated into mainstream advertising,” Karen Talley at the Wall Street Journal writes, although adding this unsubstantiated claim: “Similar to other moves to attract different minority groups, the push comes with risks, as it could threaten the retailers’ relationships with some of their longtime shoppers.”

➤ “The Episcopal Church has provisionally approved a union rite for same-sex couples and a nondiscrimination policy that covers transgender people,” writes The Advocate, adding, “At the denomination’s General Convention, being held in Indianapolis, the Prayer Book, Liturgy, and Church Music Committee today passed a resolution authorizing provisional use of the rite for blessing same-sex relationships beginning December 2.”

➤ “In a clusterfuck of conspicuous consumption, Bentleys, BMWs, Range Rovers, Porsches, a Rolls Royce and a Ferrari, idled in a line 30 cars long. ‘Is there a V.I.P. entrance?’ one woman shouted to the ‘help,’ according to the New York Times. ‘We are V.I.P.’,” writes Joan Wlash at Salon, about Mitt Romney’s Koch Brothers’ fundraiser, stating, “Barack Obama couldn’t have picked a better day to announce his plan to extend tax cuts for Americans who make less than $250,000, but let them rise for the wealthy.”

➤ “Sin, celibacy, and fake marriages do not constitute progress from ex-gay therapy. The difference between ‘don’t be gay’ and ‘don’t act gay’ is merely semantic, negligible in practice and unsupported by any scientific research,” writes Zack Ford at Think Progress. “Exodus-affiliated groups are still working to instill internalized anti-gay stigma while erasing the existence of any kind of sexual orientation diversity. Their desire to not do harm is admirable — and with this change, they may in fact do less harm — but that doesn’t change the fact that anything short of sexual orientation affirmation is still harmful.”