Carroll Conley, the executive director of the Christian Civic League of Maine (CCLM), sent out a blast email to opponents of same-sex marriage in which he uses children to engender fear in his readers. Conley is one of the leaders of Protect Marriage Maine, the lead group opposing this November’s ballot measure that would allow lesbian and gay couples to marry.
In his email, Conley writes, “The overwhelming body of evidence shows that children raised by their married mother and father in an intact family have the best opportunity to develop into well-adjusted adults who thrive and succeed in life.” Conley is doing a classic bait and switch; he uses a factual statement about “intact families” hoping that his readers will take it to mean those of one woman and one man, and that families head by same-sex couples are inferior.
But as shown in a report by Michael Wald (Same-Sex Couples: Marriage, Families, and Children) nothing could be further from the truth:
Some opponents of same-sex couple marriage contend that it is harmful for children to be raised by gay or lesbian parents. Again, there is a large body of research available to assess this claim. The American Psychological Association concluded in 1995 that “(n)ot a single study has found children of gay and lesbian parents to be disadvantaged in any significant respect relative to the children of heterosexual parents. Indeed, the evidence suggests that home environments provided by gay and lesbian parents are as likely as those provided by heterosexual parents to support and enable children’s psychological growth.”
The vast majority of children in all the studies functioned well intellectually and did not engage in self-destructive behaviors or in behavior harmful to the community. The studies also found that in terms of peer relations, relations with parents, self-esteem, leadership ability, self-reliance, interpersonal flexibility, and self-confidence, as well as in general emotional well-being, the children living with gay parents did not look different from their counterparts with heterosexual parents. In the one study that followed children raised from birth into adulthood by a gay parent(s), the young adults did not differ from the young adults raised in heterosexual families with respect to employment, ability to find and relate to partners, or in their general sense of well-being.
Conley also reverts back to an argument used in 2009, used by Stand for Marriage Maine (S4MM), that “in nearby Massachusetts when same-sex marriage was imposed by the courts and kids as young as second grade were taught about gay marriage in class.” Supporters of the peoples veto of Maine’s equal marriage law that year ran an ad featuring Rob and Robin Wirthlin, the Mormon couple that brought a lawsuit against their school district in the Bay State.
Using children and schools to instill the “ick factor” in the electorate was the only strategy that would work, according to the public relations firm hired by S4MM, Schubert-Flint. And it is obvious that opponents of same-sex marriage will rely on that tactic this year.
Below is the blast email:
Dear Marriage Supporter,
As you talk with your family, friends, and neighbors about the initiative on the November ballot, it is important to let them know that marriage is much more than a religious institution. Marriage between one man and one woman supports the public good, and provides the ideal environment to connect children with the two people responsible for bringing them into the world – their mother and father. The overwhelming body of evidence shows that children raised by their married mother and father in an intact family have the best opportunity to develop into well-adjusted adults who thrive and succeed in life.
Our children need and have the right to experience, the unique and irreplaceable role of both a father and a mother. When a child is born, her mother is almost always actively involved in her life, but the same cannot always be said of her father. A well-functioning society encourages marriage between one man and one woman so any children born of their union have the best chance of experiencing the love of both their mother and father.
Same-sex marriage advocates propose moving away from a system that is best for society – especially for children – and focus only on the desires of individual adults. Under this self-centered, genderless definition of marriage, the interests of Maine’s children would not be considered, and as a result society as a whole would suffer.
This is what happened in nearby Massachusetts when same-sex marriage was imposed by the courts and kids as young as second grade were taught about gay marriage in class. The courts ruled that parents had no right to prior notice, or to opt their children out of such instruction.
With your help, we will protect our children by preserving marriage as the union of one man and one woman.
Sincerely,
Carroll Conley
Protect Marriage Maine