A new research portal focused on public policy issues has chosen gay parenting and conversion therapy as its first topics of interest.
Nathaniel Frank, one of the What We Know portal's founders, worked for a decade at the Palm Center doing research advocacy work on Don't Ask, Don't Tell, and he said he saw first hand the part research advocacy plays in public debates on contentious issues.
"Research advocacy I think is critical," Frank said.
He noted in the case of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" ( DADT ) after a while, there was a critical mass of studies to support that gays serving openly in the military would not have a negative impact on the military. Those studies, once deployed strategically, helped to counter the remaining opposition by showing how unfounded the arguments being used to support DADT really were.
Now, Frank hopes to take what he learned during those DADT years and apply it to other LGBT-related public policy issues.
In January, he helped launch the What We Know online research portal at Columbia Law School.
"The idea is to collect all of the scholarly research on certain current debates in one place," he said.
Frank said the What We Know portal will be a place where policy makers, judges, journalists, opinion leaders and anyone else can go to find more than just talking points on an issue.
Instead, they will find all of the relevant peer reviewed studies that have been completed on a topic as well as an overview of the combined studies findings.
"This allows for people to make decision for themselves, but also see with just a glance what the research universe shows," Frank said.
"If you are a lawmaker faced with questions about a law or policy in your state that would create or deny protections to same sex headed households and you want to know what we actually know about this … and you don't want to rely on having your staff read one or two studies or you aren't sure which if any advocacy organization to trust with providing you with the full universe of what we know on this topic, where do you go? This is an effort to be one answer to that question. The idea is to collect all of the scholarly research on certain current debates in one place."
Gay and lesbian parenting was the first issue tackled by the What We Know team and the portal now offers approximately 75 peer reviewed studies for visitors to peruse.
"The consensus is overwhelming that having a gay or lesbian parent doesn't harm children," Frank said.
He noted only three studies provided through the portal concluded the opposite. Despite that drastic difference there is still an opposition campaign attempting to sway judges and policy makers against gay marriage and same sex parents adopting by pointing to "many" contradictory studies on the issue.
"There is a concerted effort by some people who oppose gay marriage to critique the research that exists and create research claiming the opposite," he said. "The Supreme Court is taking up the issue of marriage equality this spring and the last time it did so this question of having a gay and lesbian parent and whether it had an impact on children came up and Justice Scalia said, unchallenged, that there was disagreement among social scientists about this question."
Frank said he hopes the What We Know portal will help shed light on the fact that sometimes these types of disputes are manufactured and not based on reality.
The consensus on gay parenting is overwhelming when you compare it to a lot of other research," he said.
The same goes for conversion therapy.
"Consensus from serious scholars [on this topic] is clear, but for some reason is still being debated," Frank said.
The What We Know project will continue to focus on LGBT policy issues for the time being. Frank said additional research topics will be added on an ongoing basis and will be based on the project team's expertise and the issues it thinks it can most readily influence by its efforts.
Frank said he expects to see studies on LGBT health risks, family rejection and acceptance, and transgender issues to be some of the next topics to be added to the portal.
He also hopes the portal will start to show where more studies are needed.
Visit whatweknow.law.columbia.edu/ to learn more.