Concerns – “The National Longitudinal Lesbian Family Study” & Understanding Child Abuse

Blog title: Concerns – “The National Longitudinal Lesbian Family Study” & Understanding Child Abuse

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Popular press reports of the findings of the NLLFS (National Longitudinal Lesbian Family Study) in 2010 stated:

• “Families headed by two lesbian women had a zero-percent rate of child abuse.”

•  “The researchers, who interviewed a group of 17-year-olds, suspected that such family situations were more peaceful because no male tempers are involved.”

The validity of the study has been challenged on the scientific quality of its method.

Following is a sample of case histories of lesbian involved child abuse. This collection of cases may be useful to researchers who wish to look deeper into the questions raised by this controversial study.

The study is important for the reason that it was designed to give a foundation for public policy. The stuidy’s authors not that their project and its claims have “implications for healthcare professionals, policymakers, social service agencies, and child protection experts who seek family models in which violence does not occur.” Thus it is necessary to look into the question of whether the family model studied is in actuality a family model “in which violence does not occur.”

Governmental social engineering initiatives based on faulty premises – often as the result of inaccurate “advocacy” scholarship often makes the problems it claims to address worse than before government intervened for the sake of “progress.”

This post does not make an effort to promote any conclusion, but rather seeks to promote further research and to assist in avoiding superficial interpretations and unjustified or misleading claims that frequently appear in the press. In particular the stated notion (a postulated conclusion from the study) that “male tempers” are more likely to result in physical abuse than “female tempers” deserves serious detailed exploration.

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NO “MALE TEMPERS” INVOLVED – A selection of cases of child abuse perpetrated in lesbian households:

1984 – Georganna Lagen (M) & Paula Martineau – Las Vegas, Nevada – Michelle King (27 mo.), died. (Jul. 19) – Both women Air force officers. Child beaten, skull fracture, massive hemmorage.

1990 – Ana Cardona, 30 (M) & Olivia Gonzalez – Miami, Florida – Lazaro Figueroa, 3, died. –  (Oct. 31) – “Lazaro was often tied to the bed, locked in a closet, or left in the bathtub with extremely cold or hot water.  When his body was found, it was covered in bruises and bedsores, and the child weighed only 18 pounds. On 10/31/90, Cardona split Lazaro’s head open with a baseball bat, and when the child would not stop screaming, she beat him to death.  Cardona and Gonzalez-Mendoza dumped the body in a Miami Beach neighborhood, fled to Orlando and were eventually apprehended in St. Cloud.”

1992 – Tivia Strother, 22 (M) & Lisa (Kevin) Smith, 24 – Los Angeles, Ca. – Tivia Smith, 18-mo., died (Apr. 7) – “the toddler was emaciated like ‘a concentration camp victim’ from being starved, and had been forced to stand in a corner for eight hours at a time. Prosecutors contended that the women would dunk the child's legs in icy water afterward to make them stronger, so she would be able to stand for longer periods of time. The youngster also was forced to eat only oatmeal or grits, and autopsy reports showed the girl's mouth was damaged from being force-fed with a metal spoon.”

2004 – Zahira Matos (M), 20 & Carmen Molina, 32 – New York, N. Y. – Yovany Tellez Jr. (2), died (Sep. 19) – “When Yovany died, he had a lacerated liver, broken ribs and a broken leg, and he was covered in feces, prosecutors said during trial. More than 40 bruises covered his body, they said.”

2003 – Hanelie Botha, 31 (M) & Engeline de Nysschen, 33 – Vereeniging, South Africa – Jandre Botha, 4, died (June 12) – “De Nysschen had viciously assaulted Jandre while demanding that he must call her ‘daddy.’ Both testified that while Jandre was assaulted, his mother failed to intervene or protect him. Evidence showed he had sustained horrific injuries, including a fractured skull and brain damage, as well as broken legs, collarbone, hands and pelvis.”

2008 – Starkeisha Brown, 24 (M) & Krystal Matthews, 21 – Los Angeles, Ca. – boy, 5, tortured, survived (Jun. 9 rescued) – “Officials say the child has countless cigarette burns all over his body, including his genitals, and can’t open his hands because he was forced to put them flat on a hot stove. The boy was also repeatedly beaten and forced to sit in his own urine, police said.”

2009 – Erica Mae Butts, 25, (godmother), Shanita Latrice Cunningham (best friend of victim’s mother, Butts’ partner), 25 – Summerville, South Carolina – Serenity Richardson (3), died. (Nov. 3)–“Doctors and nurses at the hospital saw cuts and bruises on Serenity's chest, abdomen, legs, arms, feet and back. The police report said there was a golf-ball sized bruise on her head and a large burn mark on her right leg. An autopsy by a Medical University of South Carolina forensic pathologist determined that the cause of death was ‘full body blunt force trauma.’”

2013 – Polly Chowdhury (M), 35 & Kiki Muddar, 43 – Chadwell Heath, east London, England – Ayesha Ali (8), tortured, died (Aug. 29)– “Ayesha Ali's body had more than 40 injuries, including a bite mark and she had earlier written heart-rending letter asking what she had done wrong.” “She died of a head injury but had suffered more than 40 injuries including carpet burns and a bite mark.”

2014 – Rachel (Trelfa) Fee (M), 31 & Nyomi Fee, 29 – Glenrothes, Fife, Scotland  – Liam Johnson, extreme tortures, died (Mar. 22)– “After Liam had died, they allegedly grabbed the hand of the seven-year-old and forced it into the dead boy’s mouth before police and paramedics arrived at their home near Glenrothes in Fife. The couple are also said to have deprived all three boys of food, refused to let them go to the toilet at night and forced them to stand naked and shivering under a cold shower if they wet the bed. The Fees told the older boys that their penises would be cut off with a saw and said to one of them that they had killed his dad with a saw, prosecutors claim in a court indictment. They allegedly made a cage out of a metal fireguard and piece of wood and imprisoned one of the youngsters in it with his arms and legs bound to the structure for prolonged periods of time. The couple are also said to have forced the same youngster to eat his own excrement and dog excrement, put soap in his mouth and shut him in a darkened drawer to sleep. The other seven-year-old child was allegedly compelled to eat his own vomit and had his face rubbed in underwear soiled with urine and faeces. One of the seven-year-olds allegedly had a cage of rats put on his head and the other was tied naked in a room were rats and snakes were kept and told a boa constrictor there ‘ate naughty boys’. Both women are charged with assaulting Liam, who was also known as Liam Fee, by repeatedly inflicting blunt force trauma to his head and body between January 2012 and March 2014.”

2014 – Crystal Jean Hostetter (M), 24, & Sarah Elizabeth McClain, 30 – Douglasville, Georgia; boy (6), survived. (Apr. 26, arrested)– They “forced the boy into a small pet crate, and covering his hands and feet with syrup and cat litter. They also forced him to hold a brick over his head for 15 minutes and refused to give him prescribed medications. While the abuse was happening, neighbors could hear the boy screaming “Don’t kill me!” and “Don’t you love me?” according to police. Hostetter said that the abuse was her way of punishing her son, and she told police that the reason she poured the syrup on him is because she knows he doesn’t like it.”

2016 – Rachel Stevens (M), 28 & Kayla Jones, 25 – Muskogee, Oklahoma; boy (5); survived. (Jan. 14)– “the little boy and learned that the child had been tied up, had duct tape placed over his eyes and had been kept in a locked room, the document states. The toddler also claimed that his mother struck him on the hand with a hammer, and that both she and Jones hit him with a belt all over his body. According to police, the horrific abuse went on for several months. The little boy said on one occasion, his step-mother kicked him in the groin until he bled.”

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Inferences made by the authors of the study:

“[T]he absence of child abuse in lesbian mother families is particularly noteworthy, because victimization of children is pervasive and its consequences can be devastating. To the extent that our findings are replicated by other researchers, these reports from adolescents with lesbian mothers have implications for healthcare professionals, policymakers, social service agencies, and child protection experts who seek family models in which violence does not occur.” [Nanette Gartrell, Henny Bos, US National Longitudinal Lesbian Family Study: Psychological Adjustment of 17-Year-Old Adolescents, Pediatrics, May 2010]

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Regarding the faulty method of the study:

1) The "research" consists of the mothers' opinions about their own children;

2) Only 77 lesbian couples participated in the "study," and they were not typical parents in other regards. An earlier NLLFS reportdescribed the sample population as Caucasian (93 percent), predominantly college-educated (67 percent), mostly middle- and upper-class (82 percent), professional or managers (85 percent), and earning a median household income of $85,000; and

3) the study did not consist of a random sample -- all the participants were volunteersrecruited via posted announcements in women's bookstores, at lesbian events, and in lesbian newspapers in three major metropolitan areas (Boston, Washington, D.C., and San Francisco).

[Janice Shaw Crouse, “Lesbian Mothers Think Their Children Are All Above Average,” American Thinker, Jun. 18, 2010]

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SOURCES for quotes:
1984 – Georgiana Lagen (M) & Paula Martineau – [Tim Dahlberg (AP), “Dad won’t give up on solving child’s death; ex-wife to go om trial,” Spokesman Review (Spokane, Wa.), Apr. 20, 1987, p. C10]
1990 – Ana Cardona, 30 (M) & Olivia Gonzalez – [Court record: CARDONA, Ana Maria (H/F); Eleventh Judicial Circuit, Dade County, Case #90-48092; DC #162180; DOB: 11/26/61; Sentencing Judge: The Honorable David L. Tobin; Date of Offense: 10/31/90; Date of Sentence: 04/01/92]
1992 – Tivia Strother, 22 (M) & Lisa (Kevin) Smith, 24 – [“Lesbian Couple Charged in Fatal Beating of Toddler, Los Angeles Times (Ca.), Apr. 15, 1992]
2004 – Zahira Matos, 32 (M) & Carmen Molina, 20 – [Murray Weiss, “‘Monster Moms’ – Lesbians Killed Potty-Tot: Cops,” New York Post (N. Y.), Sep. 21, 2004]
2003 – Hanelie Botha, 31 (M) &Engeline de Nysschen, 33 – [Baldwin Ndaba, “Lesbian couple guilty of gruesome murder,” IOL (Cape Town, South Africa), Mar. 23, 2006]
2008 – Starkeisha Brown, 24 (M) & Krystal Matthews, 21 – [“Police arrest lesbians for 'torturing' boy, 5; Forced him to put his hands on hot stove, burned his body, genitals with cigarettes,” WND (World Net Daily), Jun. 15, 2008]
2009 – Erica Mae Butts, 25, (godmother), Shanita Latrice Cunningham (best friend of victim’s mother, Butts’ partner), 25 – [Laurie Whitwell, “Bizarre courtroom scene as lesbian lovers collapse and wail after hearing they will serve life for murdering three-year-old girl, “ Daily Mail (London, England), Nov. 7, 2011]
2013 – Polly Chowdhury (M), 35 & Kiki Muddar, 43 – [Emily Pennink, “Polly Chowdhury: 'Wicked' mum and her lover jailed for torturing daughter to death,” Mirror (London, England), Mar. 6, 2015]
2014 – Rachel (Trelfa) Fee (M), 31 & Nyomi Fee, 29 – [Mark Duell, “Mother and lesbian lover 'murdered two-year-old toddler and blamed the killing on a seven-year-old boy',” Daily Mail (London, England), Apr. 11, 2016]
2014 – Crystal Jean Hostetter (M), 24, & Sarah Elizabeth McClain, 30 – [MRC, “Lesbian Couple Locked Son In Cage, Tortured Him While He Cried For Help,” MrConservative.com, Apr. 27, 2014]
2016 – Rachel Stevens (M), 28 & Kayla Jones, 25 – [Byline “via Whoopie,” Cops: Lesbian Couple Tortured 5-Year-Old Boy, Blurrain, Jan. 14, 2016]

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