By BRIAN CLOWES
(Editor’s Note: Brian Clowes has been director of research and training at Human Life International since 1995. For a more extensive description of this obituary survey, to include an Excel spreadsheet with details on all of the obituaries, e-mail him at bclowes@hli.org.)
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Despite the scientific evidence to the contrary, pro-homosexual groups tend to insist that living the homosexual “lifestyle” is just as healthy as heterosexuality. Some of the claims made by pro-homosexual groups are ridiculous on their face. For example, in its comically misnamed Intelligence Report, the Southern Poverty Law Center recently claimed:
“Myth #4: LGBT people 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 lifespans and poorer physical and mental health of gays and lesbians are often offered as reasons why they shouldn’t be allowed to adopt or foster children.”
Anyone who has done research in this area of public health knows about the tremendous deleterious physical and mental consequences of homosexual behavior. Unfortunately, the research showing these effects is condemned or ignored by homophiles.
To complement this research I took a different approach: I examined 6,089 obituaries of homosexual men from four homosexual magazines: The Bay Area Reporter, the Washington Blade, the New York Blade, and This Week, published between 1980 to 2014 inclusive. There were only 138 obituaries for lesbians in these magazines, too small a sample from which to draw conclusions.
In order to be included as a subject of this survey, a man had to be positively identified as a homosexual, which meant that only a fraction of available obituaries were used in this survey. However, since the number of obituaries was so large, a more than adequate sample size was achieved.
Primary Conclusion. As time passes and medical innovations proliferate, lifespans are lengthening, including those of male homosexuals. However, their average lifespans still lag significantly behind those of male heterosexuals.
According to the data from this survey, the average age of death for male homosexuals hovered around a dismal 40 years until about 1995, and then began to rapidly improve. As of 2014, it was about 60, an increase of 50 percent in about 20 years.
In 2014, the average loss of life for a male homosexual was about nine years. The average lifespan of male homosexuals may eventually compare to that of the general male population, and “gay” activists will inevitably point to this as proof that the homosexual lifestyle is safe and healthy. But this is a fallacy — if your very life depends upon the constant consumption of powerful antiretrovirals, you are certainly not “healthy.”
Secondary Conclusions. There are a number of very interesting conclusions regarding specific populations that can be drawn from this obituary survey.
Black male homosexuals lost fewer years of life than white male homosexuals over the time period of this survey (1980-2014). The 159 black male homosexuals in this summary died at an average age of 41.8 years, meaning an average loss of life of 19.3 years as compared to 23.3 years for white homosexuals.
With all the chatter about “Caitlyn” Jenner lately, it is also interesting to examine the health impacts of transgenderism. Not surprisingly, so-called “transgendered” people die young, even when compared to the larger homosexual populations. The human body simply cannot tolerate the brutal abuse inflicted upon it by this kind of mutilation and its lifetime requirement of ingesting huge doses of extremely powerful hormones. The 61 identified originally male “transgendered” people in this sample died at an average age of 40.7. Two-thirds of these deaths were violent in nature (murder, suicide, and fatal accident).
Causes of Death. The causes of death for male homosexuals differ greatly from those of the general population. The rates of death of homosexual men from cancer, heart disease, stroke, and diabetes are all significantly lower than those of the general population, because homosexuals simply do not live long enough to die from them at greater rates. About three-fourths of the sample population died of HIV/AIDS at an average age of only 40.26 years during the survey period.
Other Observations. While reading through these thousands of obituaries, I noticed several interesting trends.
To begin with, in contrast to the obituaries in mainstream newspapers, the ones for homosexuals studiously avoid using the words “died,” “dead,” and “death,” perhaps as kind of an avoidance of acknowledging the very fact of death itself. Strangely, many of these obituaries strongly assert that the deceased is definitely in Heaven and enjoying various (always physical) delights. The obituaries often identify homosexuals as being “spiritual” but never as being “religious.” Some even claim that the deceased was a “fervent Catholic,” despite the deceased having countless sexual partners and helping to “defend” abortion clinics.
Not one of the thousands of obituaries acknowledged that promiscuous sex was the primary driver of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Nor is there acknowledgment of the fact that the government has spent hundreds of billions of dollars on research on AIDS and care for AIDS victims, and that every person who dies of AIDS has more money spent on him or her by the government than 20 cancer or heart disease sufferers.
One obituary read, in part, “Governmental inaction, corporate greed, and the queer-hatred of the U.S. citizenry have murdered one more of our warriors.” Another claimed that the deceased “was the first protester to rush to the Dallas Convention Center’s huge glass doors, bang on the glass, and shout ‘Murderers! Murderers!’ at George Bush and the Religious Roundtable.” Yet another complained that “another hero is dead, killed as much by fundamentalist arrogance and governmental indifference as by HIV.”
Others were “murdered by homophobia and the government”; “died of government-related immunodeficiency disease”; “killed by AIDS, homophobia, and a government indifferent to his pains and needs”; and “died because of the U.S. Government’s lack of action and compassion.” Another claimed that “greed and government apathy continue to spread the AIDS epidemic.”
The hatred many homosexuals have for the Catholic Church is strong and is often vividly portrayed in these obituaries. Even though the Church lovingly cared for a friend for months as he was dying, the writer of one man’s obituary couldn’t resist penning a little improbable anti-Church propaganda:
“For the last six months of his life, Wayne lived at the Catholic-run Gift of Love Hospice in San Francisco. Although Wayne lived as an atheist all his life, the nuns coaxed him to convert to Catholicism, offering large supplies of candy and cigarettes in return.” Another “was also well known for his furies, for his rages at the Pope and the devastating impact of homophobia.”
Yet another said: “His greatest concern in life was the exposing and dismantling of religion, which he felt was the greatest threat to human liberty and freedom.” Finally, one obituary described the deceased as “a valiant Knight of truth, he fought superstition and the tyranny of Christist [sic] dogma; he is now a Free-man of the City of the Stars.”
The authors used a wide range of terms to describe their relationships and their companions in their obituaries: “significant other,” “lover,” “lifetime companion,” “long-term roommate,” “special friend,” “domestic partner,” “love/mate,” “companion,” “partner in life,” “very close friend,” “long-term friend,” “special best friend,” “soulmate,” and even demeaning terms such as “insignificant other” and “sidemeat.”
There was very frequent mention of association with Alcoholics Anonymous and a “recovery community,” and ample evidence of other addictions. Most noticeably, there are many quotes boasting that “he lived life his way” or “he lived life on his own terms.” These include obituaries for people who “loved to have things his way”; “always refused to abide by the rules”; and “led a wild life, and he lived it exactly as he chose.”
One taught others to “Do what you want in your lives — no excuses,” and another came to San Francisco “in search of a new and guilt-free life.” The most common expression was “I am not here for a long time, just a good time!”
There are lessons we can learn from these trends. What is even more troubling is that at times some homosexuals who learned that they were infected with HIV made conscious decisions to continue practicing promiscuous sex, regardless of how many other lives were endangered.
One obituary revealed that “by the time he was 22, Warren knew he was infected [with HIV]. Nonetheless, he lived passionately and exuberantly, putting as much intense and ecstatic sex as he could into every day, sharing his joy widely….[He left his occupation of] chemistry for slavery because he had learned to follow his bliss.”
Slavery Indeed. It is depressing to read the stories of so many wasted lives. It is even more disheartening to see that these obituaries carry no sign that others learned from their obvious lessons. Homosexuals frequently boast about their genius and talent, then deliberately proceed to deprive the world of these qualities.
Egocentrism can be a terrible — and even fatal — character flaw.
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