At a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Wednesday, Sen. Al Franken (D-MN) dismantled Focus on the Family senior vice president Tim Minnery’s claim that children are better off with married straight parents.

Minnery had tried to use a 2010 Department of Health and Human Services study to back up his assertion.

“I checked the study out,” Franken told the anti-gay rights crusader. “It doesn’t actually say what you said it says. It says ‘nuclear families’ not ‘opposite-sex couples.'”

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“Isn’t it true, Mr. Minnery, that a same sex couples would fall under the definition of nuclear family?”

“I would assume it would mean a family with husband and wife,” Minnery replied.

“It doesn’t,” Franken explained. “I frankly don’t know how we can trust the rest of your testimony if you are reading studies this way.”

Watch this video from the Senate Judiciary Committee, broadcast July 20, 2011.

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(H/T: Think Progress)