New Study Finds The KKK Was Instrumental In Switching Southern Voters From Democrats To Republicans | If You Only News

A press release from the American Sociological Association on “Newswise” says that a new study finds that the KKK has had a “lasting impact” on politics in America. Specifically, the study, conducted by David Cunningham, chair of the Department of Sociology at Brandeis University, Rory McVeigh of Notre Dame, and Justin Farrell of Yale University, found that the KKK was instrumental in switching southern voters from Democrats to Republicans, beginning in the 1960s. The study also found that the KKK’s influence over southern politics has continued into the 21st century.

According to the ASA’s press release, the researchers looked at ten southern states where the KKK was actively recruiting during the 1960’s. They examined the county voting records, and discovered that, in the presidential elections between 1960 and 2000, counties with active KKK chapters showed a “statistically significant increase in Republican voting compared to counties with no established KKK chapter.”

New Study Finds The KKK Was Instrumental In Switching Southern Voters From Democrats To Republicans | If You Only News

Mark Regnerus Watch: Utah, Michigan | The Bilerico Project

Tuesday I posted concerning Regnerus and his flawed "sociological study." The one where data and conclusion don't exactly line up. This article again touches on the influence of said study but also delves into some of the other players in the Utah case (and Michigan as well).

Relying on information from Joe.My.God.:

Another familiar name on the Utah brief is Professor Douglas Allen, of Canada's Simon Fraser University. Allen sits on the board of directors of NOM's former hate-satellite, the Ruth Institute. Allen is a supporter of Regnerus and claims to have analyzed a 2000 census and come to the conclusion that "children being raised by same-sex couples are 35% less likely to make normal progress through school."

Also signing the brief is Professor Joseph Price from Utah's Brigham Young University. Last year Price and four other (presumably Mormon) members of the Brigham Young social sciences faculty filed an anti-gay SCOTUS brief against the overturn of DOMA. Their brief denounced the APA's position that gay people make fine parents. From the brief: "Boys who do not regularly experience the love, discipline, and modeling of a good father are more likely to engage in what is called 'compensatory masculinity' where they reject and denigrate all that is feminine and instead seek to prove their masculinity by engaging in domineering and violent behavior." In other words, lesbian parents produce violent boys.

What I, and by reading through various comments from JMG, and a few others have pondered: how is a widely discredited study continually cited in cases all the way up to the supreme court?

The answer simplified, "[t]he reason this study still carries weight in Court is because it does, to this day, remain Peer Reviewed and Published, although 2 out of 3 peer reviewers were CONCOMITANTLY paid consultants to the study." Unlike the Wakefield vaccine study which was rescinded, this study has not been.

Mark Regnerus Watch: Utah, Michigan | The Bilerico Project

Discredited Regnerus Study Continues Its Reign of Error | Hatewatch

For the anti-gay movement, call it the gift that keeps on giving. The thoroughly discredited study by University of Texas sociology professor Mark Regnerus that was released July 2012 has turned up yet again, this time in the initial brief filed on behalf of the state of Utah in its fight against marriage equality. A federal judge ruled in December that Utah’s ban on same-sex marriage is unconstitutional. The Supreme Court granted a stay in January, and the lawsuit is currently wending its way through the appeals process.

The brief, filed by the state’s legal team late last night (beating the deadline by 30 minutes), suggests that children will somehow be endangered by marriage equality, and the Regnerus study is supposed to lend credence to the false claim that children raised in same-sex households fare worse in many ways than in households with opposite-sex couples.

However, Regnerus’ data does not support that conclusion, as he himself has admitted. Hundreds of sociologists have noted the study’s flawed methodology while the American Sociological Association slammed the study in a March 2013 amicus brief filed with the Supreme Court. Meanwhile, documents obtained by the American Independent suggest that Regnerus was recruited to conduct the study in order to use its findings to influence possible Supreme Court decisions regarding marriage equality and in fact may also have been coached about how to discuss the study publicly.

In spite of all that, since its publication, the study has been used in several amicus briefs that oppose marriage equality and it has been cited as justification for anti-gay policy at home and abroad. Last September, a Russian lawmaker cited the study in conjunction with his proposed bill to deny gay and lesbian parents custody of their children. The study may also have played a role in the passage of laws against “gay propaganda” in Russia that have encouraged open homophobia and, in some cases, violent attacks.

Discredited Regnerus Study Continues Its Reign of Error | Hatewatch