Headline Of The Day
People who espouse anti-gay views die younger than those who don't, found a sure-to-be-controversial study in the February issue of the American Journal of Public Health. "Anti-gay prejudice is associated with elevated mortality risk among heterosexuals, over and above multiple established risk factors for mortality," wrote the researchers, led by Mark L. Hatzenbuehler of Columbia University. In fact, those who were not highly prejudiced against gay people lived an average of 2.5 years longer than those who were. The researchers acknowledged that the questions represent "a limited range of potential indices of anti-gay prejudice," adding that the effect of such prejudice may actually be larger than they were able to measure. The respondents included in the study were 20,226 heterosexuals who participated in GSS interviews between 1988 and 2008, 4,216 of whom had died by the end of the study period.Want to live longer? Embrace the gay!
Labels: homophobia, mortality, religion, science
