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Creep of the Week: Brad Snavely

Brad Snavely

Some things are so predictable you can set your watch by them. Your cat will stand on your chest at 6 a.m. and meow for food. Your new car will be attacked by a runaway shopping cart the first month you have it. Your great aunt Tilda will wear more and more flowery perfume the older she gets.
And anti-gay talking heads will tout B.S. parenting studies whenever the subject of gay parents comes up.
Like Brad Snavely, executive director of the Michigan Family Forum, a right-wing think tank right here in the great mitten state. Or, should I say, an anti-think tank since a lot of what they say isn't necessarily factual, it just supports what they believe to be true about the world. And their ideal world does not include LGBT people.
This worldview, of course, is getting tougher for them to pull off because, whether they like it or not, gay people exist and same-sex couples are even – gasp! – having kids and raising families.
But if the right wing can teach us anything it's persistence. And man are they persistent when it comes to trying to discredit gay and lesbian parents.
On the heels of the introduction of Rep. Paul Condino's second parent adoption bill earlier this month, Snavely wasted no time coming out against it. "Michigan Family Forum opposes this legislation because it is not in the best interest of our state's children," Snavely said in an email newsletter. "Research clearly indicates that children fair [sic] better when they are raised in a loving home by two, opposite-sex parents. The state should not support living arrangements that are not in the best interest of the child."
Grammar issues aside, what Snavely says just isn't true. There is no credible research that shows kids "fairing" better in homes headed by two opposite-sex parents. Dr. Paul Cameron, the man behind this so-called research, has been widely discredited (he was also my Aug. 8, 2005 Creep of the Week). There is, however, credible research showing that kids fare better when they are raised by two parents, legally recognized, regardless of gender. In fact, there has even been research done that finds lesbians may be the best parents of all. But that's beside the point.
Why doesn't Snavely just come out and say it? He doesn't like gay people, he thinks they're icky and he thinks their kids will turn out icky, too. Sure it's not supported by "research" but it's the real reason they oppose second parent adoption. If they were really interested in what's best for kids they wouldn't get in the way of a child's right to a legal relationship to both his or her parents. Instead, they want to punish kids because they don't like who their parents are.
I'll give Snavely the "loving home" part though. That's what all kids deserve. Sadly, that's not what all of them get. No child should have to endure abuse. No child should have to go to school hungry. No child should have to go without health care. But maybe those issues aren't "sexy" enough for the Michigan Family Forum to fund raise with.

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