GAY TRUTH

Logo of the United States National Cancer Institute, part of the National Institutes of Health. (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) While populations are often analyzed by age, sex, and race with respect to cancer risk and cancer outcomes, sexual orientation has previously not been studied as a factor for either cancer incidence or cancer outcome. A study published in the journal Cancer on May 9, 2011 has now specifically examined the cancer survivorship of the gay, lesbian, and bisexual population (DOI: 10.1002/cncr.25950). The study authors found that cancer outcomes differ based on sexual orientation. While there is a dearth of data on cancer survivorship among gay/lesbian/bisexual populations, it has been suggested that these populations generally engage in behaviors that are associated with greater cancer risk. These risk factors include a higher incidence of obesity and alcohol(Drug information on alcohol) consumption among the lesbian population and a higher rate of smoking amo

June 25, 2012 ( HLIAmerica.org ) - It was a distressing report from the Center for Disease Control — a May 2012 update on HIV and AIDS among gay and bisexual men. The report details the degree of HIV/AIDS infection in the population of men who have sex with men ( MSM ). Though the report is both startling and disturbing, I am compelled to first echo the Church’s teaching that unjust discrimination toward human beings , including those who have deep-seated homosexual inclinations, is never acceptable and most be decried wherever it occurs. Every human being should be treated with respect, his dignity honored, and his health and welfare protected and preserved. This is our obligation as Catholics . Here are some of the sobering figures: Though they make up only 2 percent of the U.S. population, in 2009 MSM accounted for 61 percent of all new HIV infections in the United States and 79 percent of all infections among newly infected men. In 2010, this rate of diagnosis among MSM

Image via Wikipedia The U.S. Centers for Disease Control has estimated that homosexual men account for 61% of the new HIV infections in the United States while they only amount to about 2% of the country’s population. Earlier this month, the CDC released estimates for HIV infections from 2006-2009 showing that new infections remained stable at around 50,000 for each of the four years. Homosexual men accounted for 29,300 of the estimated 48,100 new infections in 2009, and homosexual men aged 13 to 29 accounted for 27% of the new cases. The only group in which new HIV infections is increasing, they say, is young homosexual men – driven by an alarming increase in infections from African Americans .   They estimated that the new infections among young black homosexual men increased 48 percent in the period of 2006-2009 (from 4,400 HIV infections in 2006 to 6,500 infections in 2009). The study also revealed that almost 20% of homosexual men have HIV, while nearly half of those who