Homosexual couples less healthy than married heterosexuals, study finds
 |
| Journal of Health and Social Behavior (Photo credit: Wikipedia) |
LANSING, MI, February 28, 2013, (LifeSiteNews.com) – A new study has found that gay and lesbian couples are less likely to be healthy than heterosexual couples, a finding that confirms traditional claims that homosexuality is an unhealthy lifestyle.
This study, published in the Journal of Health and Social Behavior, found the starkest of contrasts when it narrowed its focus to homosexual couples living together as contrasted with married heterosexual couples.
It found that same-sex cohabiting men were 61 percent more likely to report “poor or fair health” than an equitable number of men reporting from heterosexual marriages. Same-sex cohabitating women were 46 percent more likely to report the same when compared to heterosexual married women.
Indeed, black women in a lesbian relationship were likely to report being less healthy than single, divorced, and widowed black women.
These results held after controlling the socioeconomic status of the 1,659 same-sex couples reporting.
The study confired the mounting evidence gathered through decades of studies that homosexuals are living an unhealthy and risky lifestyle.
The only epidemiological study ever done on the subject shows gay men die an average of 20 years younger than straight men – and that homosexual men have the same life expectancy all men had in 1871. The findings, published in Canada's International Journal of Epidemiology in 1997, were confirmed by a 2005 American study conducted by Dr. Paul Cameron.
Studies have consistently found that homosexuals have higher levels of depression,suicide, and alcohol or substance abuse than heterosexuals. They also tend to make less money than their heterosexual counterparts, which may account for some health care discrepancies.
The professor who led the newest health-related research, Dr. Hui Liu of Michigan State University, chalked up the discrepancy to the fact that homosexuals cannot marry, as well as the burden of stress and discrimination.
Liu told the press, “If marriage can promote health, it is reasonable for us to expect that if same-sex couples had the advantage of legalized marriage, their health may be boosted."
Liu proceeded to suggest that filing joint tax returns may also boost health of same-sex couples, should they be permitted to “marry.”
The study did not specifically address how these assertions were supported from the data.
In the end, Liu’s study reinforced, rather than challenged, previous studies that found that homosexual behavior is hazardous to one’s health.
