 A new study tries to show that the kids of gay and lesbian parents are worse off than the kids of straight parents. We'll take a look at all of the problems with that study, and there are a lot of them. Montana Democrats endorse marriage equality while Montana Republicans call for throwing gay and lesbian couples in prison. But now a major GOP donor is throwing his support and his money behind an effort to elect more LGBT-friendly Republicans. At the American Foundation for Equal Rights, I'm Matt Baume, and welcome to Marriage News Watch for June 18, 2012. When President Obama's lead, there's growing consensus within the Democratic Party for marriage equality. This week, party leaders in two conservative states, Texas and Montana, confirmed their support for marriage. There's growing Republican support for the freedom to marry as well. Paul Singer is a prominent Republican donor and a major supporter of marriage equality projects like AFER's case against Proposition 8. He's announced a new political action committee to elect GOP candidates who support marriage equality. Singer has pledged $1 million to start what he's calling the American Unity Pack. But not every Republican has taken notice of the 13 consecutive surveys that show a majority of Americans support marriage equality. This week, 10 Republican senators and two former attorneys general filed briefs in support of DOMA, the federal ban on marriage recognition. And in Montana, where the Democratic delegates recently endorsed marriage equality, the Republican Party platform still calls for imprisoning all gays and lesbians. The 2012 legislative session has ended in Rhode Island with no vote on bills to legalize marriage. Rhode Island currently has civil unions, but very few couples have expressed interest in the severely watered-down protections that civil unions offer. Meanwhile, across the country, officials in Washington state have confirmed that the state's marriage equality bill will be on the ballot this November. A new study out this week purports to show that the children of LGBT parents suffer when compared to the children of straight parents. But the study is so riddled with problems that it actually doesn't show anything of the sort. The study was funded by two major anti-gay organizations, the Witherspoon Institute and the Bradley Foundation. It also doesn't really compare stable gay parents to stable straight parents. Instead, it lumps all kinds of unstable relationships into the gay parent category. They also only examined parenting that occurred decades ago, before parents could even hope to be married. And the study didn't consider the length of the relationships, that's a big deal because when you look at the data, you can see that only 2% of the respondents reported having lived with a gay father for longer than three years. The editor of the journal that published the study says that the raw data may be released this fall. At that point, independent researchers can examine the findings a little more closely. In the meantime, a wide range of organizations has issued statements in support of LGBT parenting. That includes the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Medical Association, the Child Welfare League of America, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, the American Psychiatric Association, the North American Council on Adoptable Children, the Canadian Psychological Association and the Australian Psychological Society, among others. And finally, an anniversary, 45 years ago this week, the Supreme Court of the United States decided loving versus Virginia, overturning state laws that prevented interracial marriage. Years later, Mildred Loving herself stated, quote, I support the freedom to marry for all. That's what loving the case and loving each other are all about. With the American Foundation for Equal Rights, I'm Matt Baume, we'll see you next week.