Really, Minnery? Just Shut The Heck Up.

Yesterday Tom Minnery got his ass handed to him by Sen. Al Franken on the accuracy of his testimony, as Focus on the Family's Minnery attempted to assert that one study suggested that children fare best in families with one father and one mother.  Franken, of course, pointed out that the study said children do better in "nuclear family units," regardless of the gender of either parent.

Also, his name and eyes suggest to me that he is part minnow.

T-Minn continued ridin' that crazytrain, commenting on his fuckup by asserting that the study didn't include same-sex couples in that definition.  

"Sen. Al Franken, D-Minn., focused on Minnery’s written testimony, targeting one of more than 60 academic citations concerning the positive impact when children have a married mother and father in the home. Franken said he interprets one study’s definition of 'nuclear family' as one that would include same-sex married couples with children.

"Minnery replied after the hearing, 'A careful reading of the study gives no indication that same-sex couples were included; it’s simply silent on the subject. Based on the actual text of the report, a realistic assessment is that silence means absence. This study is one small part the mountain of solid data that demonstrates kids do best with a married mother and father.'"

Disregarding the fact that exclusion of gay couples would entirely invalidate the study from the gay marriage debate (how can you say that straight couples are better when you don't compare them to the alternative, T-Minn?), the lead author of the study actually supported Franken's criticism and stated that families headed by gay couples were included in the study's definition of "nuclear family."

"'Sen. Franken is right,' the lead author of the study told POLITICO. The survey did not exclude same-sex couples, said Debra L. Blackwell, Ph.D., nor did it exclude them from the 'nuclear family' category provided their family met the study’s definition.

"The study’s definition of nuclear family is: 'one or more children living with two parents who are married to one another and are each biological or adoptive parents of all the children in the family.'

"That means the study does not provide evidence that straight couples’ children necessarily fare better than same-sex couples’ kids, as Minnery claimed."

I like that this comes out after Minnery claims he "carefully read" the study, as if Franken did not.  Here's what's funny about the debate on gay civil rights: the opposition would like America to believe that their argument is based in rationality and common sense, while the left is attempting to obfuscate and discriminate against the concept of "family."  The truth?  Critics of marriage equality are study speed-readers hoping no-one will notice that their rhetoric flies in the face of science, compassion, and respect for American families.