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COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) | 12/21/2006 12:01 PM

James Dobson, chairman of Focus on the Family, says ”the two most loving women in the world cannot provide a daddy for a little boy.”

Dobson is responding to news that Mary Cheney, the lesbian daughter of Vice President DickCheney, is pregnant and plans to raise the baby with her partner of 15 years, Heather Poe.

In an op-ed posted Dec. 12 on the Time magazine Web site, Dobson said most social scientific research concludes that children do best when raised by a married mother and father.

”In raising these issues, Focus on the Family does not desire to harm or insult women such as Cheney and Poe,” Dobson wrote. ”Rather, our conviction is that birth and adoption are the purview of married heterosexual couples. Traditional marriage is God’s design for the family and is rooted in biblical truth.”

Gay rights advocates have condemned Dobson’s views. In an opposing op-ed article Time published, Jennifer Chrisler, executive director of the advocacy group Family Pride, said Dobson’s claims about research on gay parenting are ”lies and distortions.” She said gay families have successfully provided nurturing, healthy environments for children.

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