Bad news for Rick Santorum: Homophobia shortens lifespan.

[CapnAwesome]

The bad news for Rick Santorum is that more than he wakes up every morning dreaming of putting a dick in his mouth and that desire goes unfulfilled.

[John V]

Good lord, just try to find out the effects of homosexuality on lifespan (in the west), google it, I dare you. I was expecting to find that it was a few years lower, what with the higher rates of suicide and what have you, but I'm not able (well, unwilling to exert myself to the extent that would be required) to find the answer.

This. IMO the study speaks more to the bias of researchers in selecting what to study than anything else.

[Coffee Jesus]

It seems like most homophobes are secretly self-loathing homosexuals. So with that kind of self-repression and self-hatred I wouldn't be surprised that you'd die younger.

Yup.

Among men who identify as heterosexual, homophobia is correlated with increased same-sex arousal as measured by the penile plethysmograph. You can extrapolate that [edit] many of them are actually gay.[/edit]

This hypothesis would mean that homophobia is a contributory cause—it will only cause early death if you also happen to be gay—which makes me ambivalent between reproach and pity.

[Senshi]

I'd say the bible belt diet is an under-rated factor in this issue.

[John V]

Ok, that's true, it's not exactly a causal relationship going on, but there does seem to be a correlation. Which is a subtle difference, but it's there.

Anyway, I wonder what this will do to fundamentalist religious zealots who claim GLBT people have shorter life spans (a claim I haven't seen proven in any way, shape or form) and claim that's proof that their behavior is unnatural and unhealthy?

Here ya go:
http://ije.oxfordjournals.org/content/26...f_ipsecsha

CONCLUSION: In a major Canadian centre, life expectancy at age 20 years for gay and bisexual men is 8 to 20 years less than for all men. If the same pattern of mortality were to continue, we estimate that nearly half of gay and bisexual men currently aged 20 years will not reach their 65th birthday. Under even the most liberal assumptions, gay and bisexual men in this urban centre are now experiencing a life expectancy similar to that experienced by all men in Canada in the year 1871.

You don't see more such studies because it's politically incorrect to do them. The publication above later issued an apology of sorts:
http://ije.oxfordjournals.org/content/30...full#ref-1