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To: Modernman
Using obituaries as a way to figure out life expectancy doesn't sound too accurate to me. First of all, obituaries are self-selecting. Furthermore, you only get the obituaries of people who are willing to say that they are gay. What about the obituaries of gay people who don't identify themselves as homosexual in the obituaries?

Isn't that why he cross referenced the obituaries with the CDC statistics? He said they matched.

I have no idea whether this man's work is legit or not. Nor do I really care. It shouldn't be a huge shock to anyone that men who regularly engage in anal sex have health "issues".

201 posted on 06/07/2005 1:59:46 PM PDT by GipperGal
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To: GipperGal
Isn't that why he cross referenced the obituaries with the CDC statistics? He said they matched.

If you parse what this misleading article says, you find that the CDC statistics are saying something completely different.

I think this whole thing can be summarized pretty simply: Gay men get AIDs at a higher rate than the population as a whole. Therefore, the average life expectancy for gay men, as a group, is going to be lower than the general population. However, this does not say much about the life expectancy of gay men who do not get AIDs.

So, if someone wants to argue that AIDs shortens life expectancy, that's a pretty big no-brainer. However, that does not really say anything about whether or not homosexuality, in of itself, lowers life expectancy.

206 posted on 06/07/2005 2:13:08 PM PDT by Modernman ("Laws are like sausages, it is better not to see them being made." -Bismarck)
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