The Bilerico Project | Daily experiments in LGBTQ

Remarks delivered earlier this summer by a prominent French anti-gay activist suggest that University of Texas researcher Mark Regnerus's disgraced, thoroughly discredited New Family Structures Study may have played a role in the formation of Russia's now-infamous law banning "gay propaganda."

On July 4, 2013, the Institut de la Démocratie et de la Coopération (Institute of Democracy and Cooperation) -- a conservative, religiously-affiliated, Russian-funded "think tank" based in Paris -- held a "round table on the defence of the family" that brought together leading figures in the French anti-equality movement with two anti-gay Russian parliamentarians, including Yelena Mizulina (right), the author of the "gay propaganda" ban.

One of the speakers that day was Béatrice Bourges, a traditionalist Catholic mother who serves as a spokesperson for the violent anti-gay group Printemps Français (French Spring). In her remarks, delivered just days after Vladimir Putin signed Mizulina's barbaric bill, Bourges heaped praise on Russia for having the "courage" to adopt it:

"You had the courage to [adopt the law], and you had more courage to discuss the prohibition of homosexual propaganda. In France, of course, even that word is forbidden to us." (Translation via Google)

Bourges continued:

"I greatly admired -- and envied, I admit -- the way you could explain, among other things, the study of Mark Regnerus. This study has been banned in France; that is to say, when we tried to speak of it, we were labeled homophobic." (Translation via Google and Michael Knaapen, emphasis mine.)

So there you have it: Mark Regnerus's dubious same-sex parenting research may have played a role in persuading Russian politicians to initiate a draconian crackdown on LGBT people's basic rights and freedoms. This is just one more reason why it's important to learn the full truth about this sham "study," which remains unknown.

An open records lawsuit I filed earlier this year seeks to uncover that information. The lawsuit is still in process, but I'm optimistic that it will be resolved in the near future. Hopefully, the documents will answer enough of the unanswered questions to thoroughly and exhaustively debunk and discredit Mark Regnerus's bogus "study" -- for good.