Lesbians Are Deadly

On my drive back from Palm Springs, I was scanning the radiowaves for NPR, Prairie Home Companion, This American Life, or some other liberal-leaning entertainment. What I stumbled on was a program on a conservative Christian radio station (KJoy92?) discussing Marlin Maddoux’s book "Public Education Against America." It was the funniest — and scariest — thing I’ve heard in ages.

One of the most amazing charges the guest made was that parents should be against homosexuality even being mentioned in schools…since homosexuality is deadlier than cigarettes. Yes, that’s what he said, the gay and lesbian lifestyle is deadlier than cancer (and he made a point of saying it wasn’t because of AIDS). According to the guest, and presumably the book, homosexuals have significantly shorter life spans than lifetime smokers (most gays and lesbians die before they are 50, the guest asserted). So the argument the hosts and guest on the show were making was that it’s hypocrisy to tell our kids that smoking is wrong, that it will kill you, when being gay is much, much deadlier.

The hosts (a married couple) and the guest also claimed that studies irrefutably show that "humanistic education" and tolerance of homosexuality inevitably leads to Marxism. I almost had an accident looking for a pen in my car so I could write down the name of the show and some of their outrageous claims…but I couldn’t find one. But I was able to remember the name of the website selling the book. I’m still looking for an article that quotes some of the "facts" from this book so I can post them here.

I’ll say this, though, it was a very entertaining show…so over-the-top it was almost satire.

UPDATE: I found this nugget on a list of  anti-Gay "talking points" from Kerby Anderson, the new host of Maddoux’s radio show "Point of View," and who may have been the guy I heard on the radio yesterday:

4. Public health: Homosexual sex is dangerous and
destructive to the human body. The International Journal of
Epidemiology reports that the life expectancy at age 20 for gay and
bisexual men is 8 to 10 years less than for all men. If the same
pattern of mortality were to continue, researchers estimate that nearly
half of gay and bisexual men currently 20 years of age will not reach
their 65th birthday.

19 thoughts on “Lesbians Are Deadly”

  1. The really scary thing, though, is that there are lots of people who believe this crap. Lots of them. My ex-wife became a bible-thumping Baptist after we split and she really believes that tolerance of gay marriage is going to lead to the downfall of North America.

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  2. Lesbians Are Deadly. If that was the title of the book, it’d be a crossover hit. “Public Education Against America” sounds very dry. Limited appeal.
    Say, can I use that?

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  3. //”humanistic education” and tolerance of homosexuality inevitably leads to Marxism//
    Finally somebody who got it right! Since we’re at it, we should all acknowledge another important truth: The earth IS a plate. It is NOT, will NOT and has NEVER been a globe. By telling your kids the earth is round you are actively endangering their lives as they will believe you and fall over the edge into the universe. Also, the idea of a round earth is directly related to Communism.
    I’m SO glad we’ve sorted that out!

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  4. I started with the National Center for Health Statistics, and could find nothing about the longevity of gays. Men currently have a life expectancy of 74.8 years, and women have an expectancy of 80.1 years. I looked up the Journal of Epidemiology and managed to find the quoted piece, but it is based on a small sample:
    http://ije.oxfordjournals.org/cgi/content/abstract/26/3/657?maxtoshow=&HITS=10&hits=10&RESULTFORMAT=&fulltext=longevity+for+males&searchid=1&FIRSTINDEX=10&resourcetype=HWCIT

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  5. I’m sure these talk show pundits and guardians of America’s future will be drop jawed with horror at HERE! — the new all-gay, all the time, lesbionic television network. I went to the premier of IN HER LINE OF FIRE, a made for HERE! TV-movie that, if you will pardon the expression, “sucked.” However, I must comment that the actor who played the bad guy was excellent. My prediction is that HERE! will face the same fate as TNN — it began as an all country network then realized that the niche was not profitable enough. There is also the argument that a “gay network” is a ghetto of their own device. With gay/lesbian characters ruling their own niche universe, doesn’t that justify not having gay/lesbian characters in “mainstream” programs? Another question raised is, “Who cares about the sexual preference of ficional characters in a TV series?” Is sexual preference, be it gender or act performed, the true identity core of a character, real or fictional? Personally, following a protagonist into the bedroom may reveal more than I want to know — especially if the character is IRONSIDE or JOHNNY JUPITOR.

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  6. Ugh, I should not have clicked on that link. Because, y’know, nothing says good morning like realizing my country hates me.
    Aside from that, his stats are wrong, or at least out dated. A more recent study which I believe was also done by Pew reported that popular support for gay marriage is increasing.
    It would seem that the (regretably) silent moderate segment of the population is actually becoming more tolerant. Too bad the conservative right is holding onto the reins of the country.

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  7. What is particularly scandalous is that the International Journal of Epidemiology research cited by the Christian Right talk show hosts was done back in 1997 and covers mortality in Montreal gay males from 1982 to 1997. In other words, from the advent of AIDS to the dawn of AIDS drugs. The talk show hosts are either abysmally ignorant of the proper uses of data, or are lying to promote their view.

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  8. The thought “homosexuals die earlier” isn’t as far-fetched as you might think. In a book about psychology (by Zimbardo, the one who did the Stanford prison experiment), I found an article about how age and the way of life correlate. The interesting result of the tests were that homosexuals do die earlier, the same with people of different colours. The reason the author gives is that it’s a matter of stress! For example Afro-Americans have to fear attacks by rascists, and this permanent angst keeps nagging at their health and so on. I don’t recall on how much data the tests are based but this sounded reasonable to me because it takes the social environment into account.
    Of course, the radio host didn’t know or didn’t want to know this. Not homosexuality itself is a disease, but our very dear society makes them sick.

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  9. Giving same-sex couples the right to marry devalues true marriage.
    ***
    Seriously, how is it that the institution of marriage is so precarious that the same-sex marriages in my country or my own unmarried-but-heterosexual-domestic-partnership will somehow lead to its downfall?
    I’m really sorry I clicked that link. Now I’m all kinds of cranky.

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  10. The same blockheads who perpetrate these opinions also insist sexual preferences are chosen, not innate.
    Assuming (purely for the sake of argument) that gays have a shorter lifespan than heteros, shouldn’t they be free to make that choice? Of course, these blockheads would say no, so they also don’t believe in personal self-determination.

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  11. …Gay marriage isn’t a threat to current marriages; divorce is. I don’t know how many couples get married fresh out of high school, or mid-college and then go “Well, if I don’t like it, I can get divorced!” And that same “buyer’s remorse” is causing a vast majority of marital problems in the US.

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