In a scathing audit provided to the newspaper, Darren Sherkat, a sociology professor at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, said the study used inadequate definitions of gay and lesbian parents, saying almost all of those who were studied didn’t raise children with a same-sex partner. An auditor the journal assigned to review the study called it “bull-” in an article published Thursday by the Chronicle of Higher Education. While it’s been hailed by gay-marriage opponents as scientific proof of their cause, the methodology has been attacked by many as flawed. One study, to be published in November in Social Science Research by University of Texas at Austin sociology professor Mark Regnerus, purports to show issues surrounding gay couples’ parenting abilities. “Therefore, conclusions cannot be drawn from that report about children raised by same-sex parents.”
It focused on children being raised in families headed by single-parents, step-parents, and married biological parents,” said Marci McCoy-Roth, a Child Trends spokeswoman, in a statement. “The 2002 report by Child Trends did not examine families headed by same-sex parents.
