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  <title>Right Wing Watch</title>
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  <updated>2008-08-07T15:57:28-05:00</updated>
  <entry>
    <title>Dobson and Perkins Weigh in on Mary Cheney</title>
    <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/dobson-and-perkins-weigh-mary-cheney" />
    <id>http://www.rightwingwatch.org/content/dobson-and-perkins-weigh-mary-cheney</id>
    <published>2006-12-11T17:08:53-06:00</published>
    <updated>2008-08-07T15:57:28-05:00</updated>
    <author>
      <name>Ezra</name>
    </author>
    <category term="Anti-Gay" />
    <category term="Family Research Council" />
    <category term="Focus on the Family" />
    <category term="James Dobson" />
    <category term="Tony Perkins" />
    <summary type="html"><![CDATA[<p>First, far-right activists called   the vice-president&rsquo;s daughter&rsquo;s pregnancy &ldquo;<a title="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/2006/12/right_on_veeps.html" href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/2006/12/right_on_veeps.html">tragic</a>,&rdquo;   then crackpot researcher Paul Cameron called it &ldquo;<a title="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/2006/12/cheney_being_cr.html" href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/2006/12/cheney_being_cr.html">cruel</a>&rdquo; to   her child. It was only a matter of time before the highest-profile leaders of   the D.C.-connected Religious Right chimed in with their opposition to gay   families.</p>
<p>James Dobson, head of <a title="http://www.pfaw.org/pfaw/general/default.aspx?oid=4257" href="http://www.pfaw.org/pfaw/general/default.aspx?oid=4257">Focus on the   Family</a>, told the readership of <em>Time</em> magazine that both childbirth and   adoption ought to be limited to opposite-sex couples because &ldquo;The two most loving   women in the world <a title="http://www.time.com/time/magazine/printout/0,8816,1568485,00.html" href="http://www.time.com/time/magazine/printout/0,8816,1568485,00.html">cannot   provide a daddy</a> for a little boy&rdquo;:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>With all due respect to Cheney and   her partner, Heather Poe, the majority of more than 30 years of social-science   evidence indicates that children do best on every measure of well-being when   raised by their married mother and father. &hellip;</p>
<p>In raising these issues, Focus on   the Family does not desire to harm or insult women such as Cheney and Poe.   Rather, our conviction is that birth and adoption are the purview of married   heterosexual couples. Traditional marriage is God's design for the family and is   rooted in biblical truth. When that divine plan is implemented, children have   the best opportunity to thrive. That's why public policy as it relates to   families must be based not solely on the desires of adults but rather on the   needs of children and what is best for society at large.   &hellip;</p>
<p>We should not enter into yet another   untested and far-reaching social experiment, this one driven by the desires of   same-sex couples to bear and raise children.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Tony Perkins, president of the <a title="http://www.pfaw.org/pfaw/general/default.aspx?oid=4211" href="http://www.pfaw.org/pfaw/general/default.aspx?oid=4211">Family Research   Council</a>, <a title="http://www.frc.org/get.cfm?i=WU06L08&amp;f=PG03I03" href="http://www.frc.org/get.cfm?i=WU06L08&amp;f=PG03I03">echoes</a> this theme   that gay parents are merely gratifying themselves rather than raising their   child well:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Children's needs, however, are more   than the sum of the wants in the lives of the adults who reside with them. Study   after study demonstrates that no amount of care or financial privilege can   compensate for the missing physical and emotional benefits experienced by   children who enjoy the lifelong love and presence of a married mother and   father.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Perkins goes even beyond the <a title="http://www.futureofchildren.org/information2827/information_show.htm?doc_id=290849" href="http://www.futureofchildren.org/information2827/information_show.htm?doc_id=290849">dubious</a> argument that children raised by gay couples are automatically worse off for   lack of a gender model; he argues that gays are simply too dangerous, writing   that &ldquo;studies published in the peer-reviewed journals&rdquo;</p>
<blockquote>
<p>&hellip; all cite the devastating effects   of domestic violence, increased substance abuse, mental health problems, sexual   identity confusion, depression, and suicide associated with the homosexual   lifestyle. A child fortunate enough to escape those realities still faces a   distinct disadvantage throughout childhood--the irreplaceable influence of the   missing biological parent.</p>
</blockquote>
    ]]></summary>
    <content type="html"><![CDATA[<p>First, far-right activists called   the vice-president&rsquo;s daughter&rsquo;s pregnancy &ldquo;<a title="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/2006/12/right_on_veeps.html" href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/2006/12/right_on_veeps.html">tragic</a>,&rdquo;   then crackpot researcher Paul Cameron called it &ldquo;<a title="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/2006/12/cheney_being_cr.html" href="http://www.rightwingwatch.org/2006/12/cheney_being_cr.html">cruel</a>&rdquo; to   her child. It was only a matter of time before the highest-profile leaders of   the D.C.-connected Religious Right chimed in with their opposition to gay   families.</p>
<p>James Dobson, head of <a title="http://www.pfaw.org/pfaw/general/default.aspx?oid=4257" href="http://www.pfaw.org/pfaw/general/default.aspx?oid=4257">Focus on the   Family</a>, told the readership of <em>Time</em> magazine that both childbirth and   adoption ought to be limited to opposite-sex couples because &ldquo;The two most loving   women in the world <a title="http://www.time.com/time/magazine/printout/0,8816,1568485,00.html" href="http://www.time.com/time/magazine/printout/0,8816,1568485,00.html">cannot   provide a daddy</a> for a little boy&rdquo;:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>With all due respect to Cheney and   her partner, Heather Poe, the majority of more than 30 years of social-science   evidence indicates that children do best on every measure of well-being when   raised by their married mother and father. &hellip;</p>
<p>In raising these issues, Focus on   the Family does not desire to harm or insult women such as Cheney and Poe.   Rather, our conviction is that birth and adoption are the purview of married   heterosexual couples. Traditional marriage is God's design for the family and is   rooted in biblical truth. When that divine plan is implemented, children have   the best opportunity to thrive. That's why public policy as it relates to   families must be based not solely on the desires of adults but rather on the   needs of children and what is best for society at large.   &hellip;</p>
<p>We should not enter into yet another   untested and far-reaching social experiment, this one driven by the desires of   same-sex couples to bear and raise children.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Tony Perkins, president of the <a title="http://www.pfaw.org/pfaw/general/default.aspx?oid=4211" href="http://www.pfaw.org/pfaw/general/default.aspx?oid=4211">Family Research   Council</a>, <a title="http://www.frc.org/get.cfm?i=WU06L08&amp;f=PG03I03" href="http://www.frc.org/get.cfm?i=WU06L08&amp;f=PG03I03">echoes</a> this theme   that gay parents are merely gratifying themselves rather than raising their   child well:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Children's needs, however, are more   than the sum of the wants in the lives of the adults who reside with them. Study   after study demonstrates that no amount of care or financial privilege can   compensate for the missing physical and emotional benefits experienced by   children who enjoy the lifelong love and presence of a married mother and   father.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Perkins goes even beyond the <a title="http://www.futureofchildren.org/information2827/information_show.htm?doc_id=290849" href="http://www.futureofchildren.org/information2827/information_show.htm?doc_id=290849">dubious</a> argument that children raised by gay couples are automatically worse off for   lack of a gender model; he argues that gays are simply too dangerous, writing   that &ldquo;studies published in the peer-reviewed journals&rdquo;</p>
<blockquote>
<p>&hellip; all cite the devastating effects   of domestic violence, increased substance abuse, mental health problems, sexual   identity confusion, depression, and suicide associated with the homosexual   lifestyle. A child fortunate enough to escape those realities still faces a   distinct disadvantage throughout childhood--the irreplaceable influence of the   missing biological parent.</p>
</blockquote>
    ]]></content>
  </entry>
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