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Utah To 10th Circuit Judges: Hey, That Regnerus Study We Cited, Just Fuhgeddaboudit

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The State of Utah has conducted their defense of traditional marriage in such an appalling manner one almost might feel sorry for them. On December 20, when a federal judge ruled that their ban on same-sex marriage was unconstitutional, state attorneys were entirely unprepared and seemingly didn’t know how to respond. It took them over a week to convince, finally, the Supreme Court to stay the ruling.

That was just the start.

The New Civil Rights Movement’s Eric Ethington wrote at the end of last month:

In the latest round of submitted briefs to the 10th Circuit Court, Utah was forced to submit a clarification brief, asking the court to let them correct more than ninety misspelling, grammar, and incorrect citation errors. As if that wasn’t embarrassing enough, it turns out that the clarification brief had errors of its own, and Utah had to submit another brief to fix the new errors.

(By the way, Ethington reports that in a separate brief filed last night, Utah Republican Attorney General Sean Reyes “quietly filed a Petition For Emergency Extraordinary Relief with the Utah Supreme Court to allow the state to halt adoptions by LGBT parents already in motion.”)

Add to this the news that last night the State of Utah submitted a letter asking the 10th Circuit Court judges to totally disregard any arguments they previously made regarding the work of wholly discredited researcher Mark Regnerus.

Regnerus, you’ll remember, was funded by the religious and anti-gay right, and claimed that his study proved that adult children raised by same-sex parents do profoundly worse in dozens of areas that their peers raised by different-sex parents. That claim has been debunked repeatedly, including many times on these pages.

Zack Ford at Think Progress pulls the relevant quote from yesterday’s letter to the Court:

First, we wish to emphasize the very limited relevance to this case of the comparison addressed by Professor Regnerus. As the State’s briefing makes clear, the State’s principal concern is the potential long-term impact of a redefinition of marriage on the children of heterosexual parents. The debate over man-woman versus same-sex parenting has little if any bearing on that issue, given that being raised in a same-sex household would normally not be one of the alternatives available to children of heterosexual parents.

Second, on the limited issue addressed by the Regnerus study, the State wishes to be clear about what that study (in the State’s view) does and does not establish. The Regnerus study did not examine as its sole focus the outcomes of children raised in same-sex households but, because of sample limitations inherent in the field of study at this point, examined primarily children who acknowledged having a parent who had engaged in a same-sex relationship. Thus, the Regnerus study cannot be viewed as conclusively establishing that raising a child in a same-sex household produces outcomes that are inferior to those produced by man-woman parenting arrangements.

You’ll remember, too, that the judge in last month’s Michigan marriage trial added to the disgrace heaped upon Regnerus and his work:

The Court finds Regnerus’s testimony entirely unbelievable and not worthy of serious consideration. The evidence adduced at trial demonstrated that his 2012 ‘study’ was hastily concocted at the behest of a third-party funder, which found it ‘essential that the necessary data be gathered to settle the question in the forum of public debate about what kinds of family arrangement are best for society’ and which ‘was confident that the traditional understanding of marriage will be vindicated by this study.’ … While Regnerus maintained that the funding source did not affect his impartiality as a researcher, the Court finds this testimony unbelievable. The funder clearly wanted a certain result, and Regnerus obliged.
[Bolding ours]

With absolutely no scientific or non-religion-based arguments left to discriminate against same-sex couples, how long will it take for marriage equality to reach all 50 states?

Stay tuned today to The New Civil Rights Movement for updates on today’s 10th Circuit hearing.

Image: Screenshot of Utah letter, via Equality Case Files on Scribd

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GRIFTER IN CHIEF

‘More Grifting’: Internet Says ‘Scam Artist’ Trump Will Try to Move GOP Convention to One of His Own Resorts

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May 25, 2020

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“Trump Doral is going to be the new corona hotspot”

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And some even noted The New York Times on Monday reported Trump has even “mused aloud to several aides about why the convention can’t simply be held in a hotel ballroom in Florida.”

 

 

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May 25, 2020

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A group of right-wing protesters held a demonstration in front of the house of Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear’s mansion this Sunday, at one point hanging an effigy of the governor on a tree in what looked to be a mock lynching. According to CNN, the protest was advertised on Facebook as a Patriot Day Rally to exercise Second Amendment rights.

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Responding to the backlash, one of the protest’s organizers took to Facebook and said that this is what happens when people have “stood by and watched this Governor drag people thru the mud and do nothing.”

“People have had enough, the rallies that you attend and speak at, do absolutely nothing to help the people of this State,” Kentucky 3Percenters Inc. State Secretary Patsy Kays Bush on Facebook. “It was not racist it was radical…You can condemn it till the cows come home but screaming and shouting in a microphone is not the answer any longer,….maybe it was in bad taste, maybe it was severe, maybe it was unexpected but at least it was something and I personally will stand by it to the absolute end.”

The protesters, who are part of a militia group that advocates for gun rights, were protesting against Beshear’s coronavirus restrictions at a Second Amendment rally in Kentucky over Memorial Day weekend.

 

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Trump Threatens to Pull GOP Convention Out of NC as First Tweet on Solemn Holiday – Then Says ‘Happy Memorial Day!’

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Memorial Day is a solemn American holiday. It was created for one reason and one reason only: to honor, and to mourn, the members of the U.S. Military who lost their lives while serving their country. It is not a happy day.

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Trump continued his bizarre and heinous holiday tweetstorm by threatening to pull the GOP convention out of North Carolina. He claims he blames the state’s Democratic governor for not giving the RNC the promise they will be allowed to have a full house for their nominating convention, due to coronavirus concerns.

He then tweeted three words no Commander-in-Chief should ever say: “HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY!”

That was followed by more political tweets.

 

 

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