Controversial Texas Professor Claims Porn a Heterosexual Gateway Drug to Supporting Same-Sex Marriag

http://smirkingchimp.com/thread/bill-berkowitz/56263/controversial-texas-professor-claims-porn-a-heterosexual-gateway-drug-to-supporting-same-sex-marriag

Controversial Texas Professor Claims Porn a Heterosexual Gateway Drug to Supporting Same-Sex Marriage
by Bill Berkowitz | June 6, 2014 - 9:37am

Mark Regnerus has a theory about pornography, heterosexual men and same-sex marriage: The more porn straight men consume, the more apt they are to support same-sex marriage. Is Regnerus trying to plant a seed that brands straight male supporters of same-sex marriage as daily porn watchers?

Regnerus, an associate professor of sociology at the University of Texas at Austin, is the author of a highly controversial study titled “How different are the adult children of parents who have same-sex relationships? Findings from the New Family Structures Study,” published in the July 2012 issue of Social Science Research. Many have criticized and condemned Regnerus’ study for not only being anti-gay, but also for being methodologically and academically limp. (For more on this see Open Letter to University of Texas Regarding Professor Mark Regnerus’ Alleged Unethical Anti-Gay Study.)

Setting that aside, consider a Regnerus piece titled “Porn Use and Supporting Same-Sex Marriage” -- which grew out of the New Family Structures Study – which appeared on The Witherspoon Institute’s Public Discourse website. The Princeton, New Jersey-based Witherspoon Institute is an ultra-conservative think tank with “ties to the Family Research Council and Roman Catholic traditionalists,” according to activistfacts.com.

In “Porn Use and Supporting Same-Sex Marriage,” Regnerus begins “to wonder about a possible link between porn and sentiment toward same-sex marriage, given the latter’s blending of something conventional — marriage — with something less conventional — homosexuality.”