SPLC INTELLIGENCE=TRUTH REPORT: Myth #4 -- ¨Homosexuals don’t live nearly as long as heterosexuals.¨



10 Hateful Anti-Gay Myths Debunked

FOURTH MYTH REGARDING GAYS:

¨Homosexuals don’t live nearly as long as heterosexuals.¨

THE ARGUMENT:
 
Anti-gay organizations want to promote heterosexuality as the healthier “choice.” Furthermore, the purportedly shorter life spans and poorer physical and mental health of homosexuals are often offered as reasons why gays and lesbians shouldn’t be allowed to adopt or foster children.
 
THE FACTS:

This falsehood can be traced directly to the discredited research of Paul Cameron and his Family Research Institute, specifically a 1994 paper he co-wrote entitled, “The Lifespan of Homosexuals.” Using obituaries collected from gay newspapers, he and his two co-authors concluded that gay men died, on average, at 43, compared to an average life expectancy at the time of around 73 for all U.S. men. On the basis of the same obituaries, Cameron also claimed that gay men are 18 times more likely to die in car accidents than heterosexuals, 22 times more likely to die of heart attacks than whites, and 11 times more likely than blacks to die of the same cause. He also concluded that lesbians are 487 times more likely to die of murder, suicide, or accidents than straight women.

Remarkably, these claims have become staples of the anti-gay right and have frequently made their way into far more mainstream venues. For example, William Bennett, education secretary under President Reagan, used Cameron’s statistics in a 1997 interview he gave to ABC News’ “This Week.”

However, like virtually all of his “research,” Cameron’s methodology is egregiously flawed — most obviously because the sample he selected (the data from the obits) was not remotely statistically representative of the homosexual population as a whole. Even Nicholas Eberstadt, a demographer at the conservative American Enterprise Institute, has called Cameron’s methods “just ridiculous.”  HERE

Ever since born-again singer and orange juice pitchwoman Anita Bryant helped kick off the contemporary anti-gay movement more than 30 years ago, hard-line elements of the religious right have been searching for ways to demonize homosexuals — or, at a minimum, to find arguments that will prevent their normalization in society. For the former Florida beauty queen and her Save Our Children group, it was the alleged plans of gays and lesbians to “recruit” in schools that provided the fodder for their crusade. But in addition to hawking that myth, the legions of anti-gay activists who followed have added a panoply of others, ranging from the extremely doubtful claim that homosexuality is a choice, to unalloyed lies like the claims that gays molest children far more than heterosexuals or that hate crime laws will lead to the legalization of bestiality and necrophilia. These fairy tales are important to the anti-gay right because they form the basis of its claim that homosexuality is a social evil that must be suppressed — an opinion rejected by virtually all relevant medical and scientific authorities. They also almost certainly contribute to hate crime violence directed at homosexuals, who are more targeted for such attacks than any other minority in America.¨


Most days throughout this Holiday Season 2010 my blog will present you and yours with the GIFT OF TRUTH AND THE REAL FACTS regarding 10 key myths propagated by the anti-gay movement, along with the truth behind the propaganda. Truth is a big gift and we give thanks to our blog-world-associates Evelyn Schlatter and Robert Steinback. Leonardo Ricardo HERE

· Thanks to Evelyn Schlatter and Robert Steinback
· Thanks to The Child Molestation Research and Prevention Institute
· Thanks to SPLC INTELLIGENCE REPORT/AlterNet
· Thanks to Flickr Photosharing, Moonjazz
· Thanks to The Reverend Dr. Jerry Maneker  HERE
· Thanks to Professor Gregory Herek, University of California, Davis
· Thanks to The American Academy of Pediatrics
· Thanks to The American Psychological Association
· Thanks to The American Psychiatric Association
· Thanks to The Child Welfare League of America
· Thanks to A Christian Voice for Lesbian, Gay, Bi and Transgender, sidebar
· Thanks to National Organization on Male Sexual Victimization