The head of the National Organization for Marriage’s Ruth Institute was apparently quite unnerved by a ThinkProgress LGBT post last week calling out Focus on the Family for using a study about single parenthood to attack same-sex parents. One of FOTF’s experts, Glenn T. Stanton, concluded from the study that children were better off with “a mother and a father,” a common talking point NOM has used to oppose marriage equality. Jennifer Roback Morse wrote that “Zach Ford” was “outraged,” “breathless,” and had a “seizure,” but she then essentially admitted all the same points made in the very post she objected to. Here are some of her concessions:

MORSE: Now Mr. Ford is correct that the University of Chicago study didn’t talk about same sex parents.

Correct. It concluded that children benefited from having intact families.

MORSE: Fatherlessness would be a serious issue, even if the definition of marriage were completely off the table.

Fatherlessness is certainly a concern for the child of a single mother, but not for the child of a committed lesbian couple, which is the conflation FOTF and NOM regularly make. As long as Ms. Morse is not attempting the same rhetorical distortion, there is no disagreement over her conclusion.

MORSE: I wrote two books, one in 2001, and another in 2005, which deal extensively with impact of family structure on the lives of children, arguing for the importance of the two parent married couple household for the development and happiness of children. Neither book has a single word about homosexuality or same sex unions.

Morse has conceded here that children are better off with “two parents” who are married. Rick Santorum similarly let slip a similar admission this week after making a “fatherless” claim of his own. One would think she would thus support same-sex families having access to marriage for the sake of their children, but Morse likely avoids thinking about loving same-sex couples raising families. After all, she thinks that couples should not have access to sperm banks, that “anal sex is icky” and a “completely shameless activity,” that sexual orientation is an “accidental characteristic” that gays and lesbians “suffer from” and “struggle with,” and that LGBT activists are comparable to Nazis and she could get “shot at any moment.”

MORSE: [Books by Stanton, Maggie Gallagher, and David Blankenhorn on family structure] are not about same sex unions.

This may very well be true, and if so, these books should never be used in arguments against same-sex marriage, nor should they qualify their authors as experts on that topic. For example, Blankenhorn, known for his book Fatherless America, was the star witness for those defending California’s Proposition 8 in court. Despite expectations that his testimony would support continued discrimination against same-sex couples, he admitted, among other things, that marriage is a “public good” and that the children of gays and lesbians would benefit if their parents could marry.

MORSE/STANTON: “Intact families are best for children of either gender.”

Nobody at ThinkProgress disputes this conclusion. Perhaps Ms. Morse should reserve her ad hominem attacks for bloggers she actually disagrees with.

Karen Santorum told the Christian Broadcasting Network yesterday that the Holy Spirit speaks through her husband Rick as he campaigns for the presidency:

SANTORUM: For me, so much of it is spiritual. I just feel like what Rick said. When you’re aware of our Lord and His presence in your life everyday, when you’re moving through the crowds, when you’re giving speeches and me as Rick’s wife, I’m watching him, and the whole time he’s speaking so often, I’m just there praying for him, asking the Holy Spirit to speak through him. And feel like God’s hand of protection is upon us.

Watch it:

Rick Santorum is very public about his Catholic faith and uses it to defend his virulently anti-gay positions. He has signed a Pledge for Religious Freedom that aims to protect churches’ “right” to discriminate, claimed marriage equality would “undermine faith,” and accused those who criticize his anti-gay beliefs of engaging in “an act of bigotry.” Santorum has also argued that states should outlaw sodomy in order to “conform to God’s law,” because “our civil laws have to comport with a higher law: God’s law.”

Maryland Senate President Mike Miller (D) spoke out against Gov. Martin O’Malley (D) push for marriage equality, describing the effort as “an attack on traditional families” this morning on The Marc Steiner Show. “I don’t want to sound like one of the Republican candidates for President,” Miller joked, “but I am what I am.” Miller said he would vote against any legislation allowing gays and lesbians to marry, but promised to hold an open vote on the issue and predicted it would pass in the Senate:

MILLER: I’m a father married for 50 years, I got 5 children, I got 13 grandchildren, I’m a traditionalist. But at the same time, I’m also a Democrat and in terms of allowing the majority view prevail — democracy, all voices heard at all times. [...]

I’m a historian and I look at civilizations, I study civilizations, I read history every night. And I see it’s an attack on the family, I think it’s an attack on traditional families. That’s the way I see it.

Miller’s counterpart, Speaker of the House Michael Busch (D) called marriage equality an inevitable “civil rights issue” and said that proponents would have to convince “about 10 people that last year wanted more information on the initiative” to vote for the legislation in order to guarantee its passage. He added that he hasn’t seen any negative effects from the policy in D.C. — where same-sex marriage is legal — or Maryland, which recognizes gay and civil unions performed in the District. Both men predicted that if the legislature approves the measure, it will go up as a petition to referendum on the November ballot. “I think a coming together of Evangelicals, Catholics, African Americans are going to go to the polls and I think it’s going to be defeated,” Miller added.

Listen to the exchange:

A marriage equality bill passed the Maryland Senate last year, but failed in the House.

Newt Gingrich tracked hard right during a morning town hall in South Carolina on Wednesday, following his fourth place finish in the New Hampshire primaries on Tuesday night. The former House speaker, pledged to stand up for the religious freedoms of Christians in the conservative Palmetto State, including the ability of organizations receiving taxpayer money to discriminate against same-sex couples:

GINGRICH: The challenge we have is anti-Christian bigotry that has forced the Catholic Church to close its adoption service in Massachusetts because it actually wanted to follow the tenets of Christianity. And you look all all around this country and you see again and again, whether its a judge knocking down a cross… I am your President, if you help me win this election, we will not tolerate a speech dictatorship in this country against Christianity.

Watch it:

South Carolina, which holds its primary on Jan. 21, may be the last opportunity for social conservative candidates like Gingrich, Rick Santorum, and Rick Perry to catch up to presidential frontrunner Mitt Romney. The state is home to a large conservative Evangelical population and may be weary of Romney, who finished in fourth during the 2008 campaign.

Gingrich is also wrong on his “religious liberties” claim. While adoption services have a right to believe whatever they want under the First Amendment, they cannot use tax payer funding to treat gay and lesbian couples like second-class citizens. In Massachusetts, Catholic Charities choose to stop providing adoption services after refusing “to place children with same-sex couples as required by Massachusetts law.”

Russian LGBT equality activists Nikolay Alekseev, Alexey Kiselev, and Kirill Nepomnyaschiy have been “arrested at solitary pickets next to children regional library in Arkhangelsk,” the group reports through Twitter. In 2006, the Russian regions of Ryazan and Arkhangelsk adopted legislation criminalizing the distribution of so-called “homosexual propaganda” to minors and this group is the first to be charged for violating the statute. Russian authorities are considering similar legislation in St. Petersburg and other regions.

A picture of their sign is below, which says, “Children have the right to know. Great people have also been gay and gay people can also become great” and lists prominent Russian gay people. It concludes: “Homosexual, it’s natural and normal”:

Momentum is building for marriage equality in Washington state, just days after Gov. Chris Gregoire (D) announced her evolution toward same-sex marriage and pledged to legalize the practice before the end of the legislative session. As Pam’s House Blend chronicles, Republicans and local governments are now echoing Gregoire’s call for equality:

– Two Republicans come out for marriage: Sen. Cheryl Pflug (R) joins state Sen. Steve Litzow (R) to become the second Republican to support same-sex marriage. “I do not feel diminished by having another human being experience the same freedom I am entitled to exercise. I would feel diminished by denying another human the ability to exercise those same rights and freedoms,” she said in a statement.

– Republican AG candidate supports marriage: Republican Attorney General candidate Reagan Dunn says he will back efforts to legalize same-sex marriage, joining Democratic challenger Bob Ferguson, who already supports the initiative.

– Largest county endorses marriage: All five Democrats and three of the four Republicans on the King County Council endorsed the marriage equality bill. King is the most populous county in Washington.

– Tacoma City Council to vote on marriage: Councilman Ryan Mello announced that he “will be introducing an amendment to our State legislative agenda to indicate Tacoma’s full support for marriage equality in Washington in this short session.”

A poll conducted by the University of Washington Center for Survey Research in October found that 55 percent of voters in Washington “would support a state gay marriage law if it’s approved by the Legislature.” A substantial percentage of people who prefer ‘domestic partnership’ also said they would vote yes to keep same sex marriage if passed by the legislature, including “54 percent of self-described Independents and 57 percent of self-described moderates.”