Married men live over 20 years longer than men in homosexual partnerships - research findings

Wednesday April 11th 2007, 7:51 am

EPA_2007_Homo_Footprint_032107.pdf
Federal Distortion Of Homosexual Footprint (Ignoring Early Gay Death?)

Paul Cameron, Ph.D. and Kirk Cameron, Ph.D.

Family Research Institute,
P.O. Box 62640, Colorado Springs, CO 80962-2640

Abstract

Non-reporting, Exaggeration of Homosexual Prevalence. By ignoring the paucity of older homosexuals, Federal bureaucracies in three countries exaggerated the size of the homosexual footprint. In 2003, Statistics Canada reported on a random sample of 121,300 adults, reporting 1.7% were bi/homosexual. Because of a decline in incidence from about 2% of adults aged in their 20s and 30s to a third of one percent among the old, inclusion of respondents aged 60+ yields a revised estimate of 1.4%. In 2005, the U.S. National Center for Health Statistics interviewed a random sample of 11,571 younger adults, but misreported findings to indicate more frequent same-sex sexual experience. In 2005, the British Department of Trade and Industry said “a wide range of research” indicated “lesbian, gay and bisexual people constitute 5-7% of the total adult population.” Yet surveys which included adults of all ages put the prevalence closer to 1-2%. Curious mistakes and omissions for well-funded bureaucracies charged with ‘reporting the truth.’

Link to Early Death. Exclusion of older adults increases the reported size of the homosexual footprint, and also tends to obscure the apparent early death of those engaging in homosexuality. Median ages of death in ‘gay marriage’ for 561 gays and 91 lesbians in Denmark (1990–2002) and 31 gays and 6 lesbians in Norway (1997–2002) were similar to U.S. gay obituaries during the same period: 52 yr. for 710 gays who ostensibly did not die of AIDS, 42 yr. for those 1,476 who supposedly did; and 55 yr. for 143 lesbians. On average, ever-married men outlived the ever-homosexually-partnered by 23 years in Denmark (74 yr. v. 51 yr.), and 25 years in Norway (77 yr. v. 52 yr.); ever-married women outlived the ever-homosexually-partnered in Denmark by 22 years (78 yr. v. 56 yr.), and in Norway by almost 25 years (81 yr. v. 56 yr.).

Implications. By not sampling (U.S., Britain) or reporting on (Canada) those aged 60+, the objectivity of central bureaucracies is called into question. That the ~2% of adults who engage in homosexuality have life spans at least 20 years shorter than the general adult population in countries contributing relevant data has implications for social policy: e.g., ‘gay rights’ (the decrement in the gay lifespan appears similar in societies that legally protect homosexuals or don’t, suggesting ‘discrimination’ does not cause their earlier death); gay marriage (which unlike man-woman marriage appears not to increase longevity); adoption (children of homosexuals are more frequently orphaned); favorable depiction of the homosexual lifestyle in schools (which is inconsistent with condemning the lesser harm of smoking); special protections for those who engage in homosexuality (why not also protect others whose sexual choices — such as polygamy or adultery — cause disruption and extra costs?); and equitable allocation of social resources (why spend excessively on HIV when cancer, heart disease, etc. afflict many more citizens?).