Homophobia Kills Homophobes

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Sounds like the stress of the closet. In BOTH instances.

Pope Buck I on February 20, 2014 at 7:07 AM

Move to Maine! And once you're here, maybe you'd like to help us elect a better governor?

Aurora Erratic on February 20, 2014 at 7:12 AM

We should let them know. They can change. Love the hater hate the hate

Chef Thunder on February 20, 2014 at 7:28 AM

Was this covered on Slog already? : http://www.bilerico.com/2014/02/breaking…

olechka on February 20, 2014 at 7:41 AM

I'd love for this to a be legitimately causal, but it's gotta be selection, right? At least for people who already have a propensity for being stressed out, regardless of what the object of that stress might be?

Clara T on February 20, 2014 at 7:47 AM

I imagine living in a perpetual mix of fear and unresolved anger could certainly lead to higher stress levels and shorter lives.

But I would have to imagine that for a person to be so homophobic that they regularly go to known gay friendly sites just to troll and vent anger that there must be unresolved same-sex feelings in that mix.

Straight people who are secure in the sexual identities simply do not obsess with what gay people do together, like many homophobes we all know.

Theodore Gorath on February 20, 2014 at 8:00 AM

@1 on the nose. Higher levels of cortisol & other stress hormones in the blood over the long term are really, really bad for you. It makes sense that the LGBT's would have higher cortisol levels since they'd have a constant low-level fear of being fired/evicted/killed for their orientation, whereas the bigots would have elevated-but-not-as-elevated levels from seeing all those job-having, house-or-apartment-dwelling, non-murdered gays walking around free. (Plus, if you're outraged about that, you're probably outraged about a lot of other things, like the UN's takeover of Murrica.)

this guy I know in Spokane on February 20, 2014 at 8:04 AM

Or there is the actual reality: poverty causes poor health, and poor education, which causes homophobia.

mage on February 20, 2014 at 9:26 AM

Forgive me, but I like to speculate about what may underlie certain statistics. If it adds to the analysis, great. If I'm just being annoying, please accept my apologies in advance.

The 12-year statistic is a powerful one, and I think we have to ask ourselves why it's so strong. One question kicking around my brain is, what is the difference between those who stay in a god-awful, hateful place, and those who move? Because, Lord knows, there are lots of happy gay people here in NYC, and an awful lot of them came from somewhere else. I imagine the same is true of Seattle, San Francisco, Boston, and other diverse urban places.

So which gay folk stay in Jesusland? Just how broken are their spirits, how impoverished, how dependent, how conflicted, or how ill are they? Who fucking desires to remain in Hell and why?

It's hard to do a demographic study comparing two environments when, to some extent, your population is self-selecting its environment. There's no question we're measuring something, but is it the difference between the environments, or the difference between the people?

Brooklyn Reader on February 20, 2014 at 9:33 AM

I think if your the apoplectic homophobic type your probably walking around with a lot of rage towards a lot of other groups too (Kenyan socialist presidents, "takers", libruls, etc) and that does take a toll.

chi_type on February 20, 2014 at 10:40 AM

I know this is the point were we are supposed to have sympathy for the poor bigots, because after all they lack the proper education, blah blah blah, and be motivated to their proper education and enlightenment...

But I really don't give a fuck.

These rabid homophobes are also almost certainly anti-a-bunch-of-other-things. They are the old guard who prevent progress from moving forward.

Even before this study I have accepted that for society to move on the old guard has to die off.

This is actually good news because I always felt bad that the non-homophobes, non-women-hating, non-racist older folks would have to go along with the racist, sexist, homophobic older folks. But now there is at least hope that the old folks who are actually the problem may die off sooner, and the decent older folks might have a chance, at least for a while, to see a world of progress after their more hateful counterparts are gone.

I call this a win all around.

Fortunate on February 20, 2014 at 11:25 AM

Is not atheism a sincerely held religious belief?

compagno on February 20, 2014 at 11:39 AM

@13: Mine is a sincerely held scientific understanding.

Hanoumatoi on February 20, 2014 at 12:05 PM

I think @8 is closest to the mark. If there is a causal relationship b/w homophobia (anger/stress) and earlier death, it is probably very small. I would think that the strong correlation between lower education (susceptibility to superstition/prejudice/irrational fear) and worse health outcomes (both strongly correlated with lower income) are where the real answers lay.

That gay people would live much shorter lives in parts of the country hostile to gay rights is not surprising. Suicide rates higher. Also, an inability to live openly makes it nearly impossible to find a partner with whom one can share their life. In spite of whatever negative things people (this married person included) can say about the institution, it's long been the case that married people live longer. Companionship, love, and financial support shoudn't be discounted in quality of life and outcomes.

seattlestew on February 20, 2014 at 12:21 PM

@9: I haven't read the study re:redstate gays, but the articles I've read say that it controlled for factors like income, education, and race. As for why a gay person might choose to stay in Jesusland, I can offer a few ideas based on my own experience, since I moved from Eastern Washington to Seattle for college in the '90s. I never looked back, but I can understand why someone might stay behind. I experienced culture shock, and i lost the network of extended family and lifelong friends which had provided both emotional and economic support. I had to deal with school, finding work, and making new friends, all in an environment that was unfamiliar and that felt more threatening than liberating. I also had a lot of internalized homophobia. The only gay people I had known were of the small town, "discreet" sort, so the idea of living openly didn't seem particularly liberating, just odd and rather tasteless. Ultimately, moving to a big, gay-friendly city was worth it, but it was a lot of effort and one hell of an adjustment, and I can understand why many people choose not to.

Joe Glibmoron on February 20, 2014 at 12:35 PM

Reading the abstract, the study says it might be 2.5 years, but the 95% confidence interval is from 1 year to 4 years. So it's probably somewhere in that range, but we have to consider the prior probability that this was true without this data, which is something that we will find difficult because of our prejudices. The cardiovascular issue is less likely to be significant, since if you look at any given population section, odds are good that they will show up as more likely to be susceptible to some condition, based simply on the fact that there are a lot of conditions, and the odds of a group being statistically normal for all of them is vanishingly small.

Hanoumatoi on February 20, 2014 at 1:25 PM

I agree with 17 and would add my experience to the question of why we stay in Jesusland. I am more self educated than school educated as I don't have a college degree. I struggled a lot after high school to make it paycheck to paycheck and it just wasn't financially feasible to pack up and move to gay friendly urban environs. Then I got really lucky and found a job that I love and that I have been able to move up in pay to a decent living for a single guy. Coming out would be the end of my job. Period. I am able to help people through my job working with teens who have been placed by the courts in the institution that employs me. Being gay and working with kids is a ticket to the hell of being labeled a pedophile and unemployment. So for the sake of my job satisfaction and my income, I remain closeted. I prefer that to flipping burgers for bare survival in the big city, which is all I am qualified for on paper. Yes it sucks to be alone. Yes it sucks to have to sneak around for sex with guys I can't ever make a life with. You adjust. You make do. It's what people do. Life sucks and then you die is the mantra of most Americans who don't have well paid jobs and the freedom that money brings in America. I understand why the working poor and blue collar bigots are so angry. They feel cheated and they have to blame someone. So they blame us. They hate us because they see gays as having stuff they can't have. I deal with them every day as parents of the kids I serve. I struggle to not hate them back. I often lose that struggle. But I get more out it than I miss out on, so I stay. Being poor in Chicago or LA or NYC or Boston, plus being estranged by your family just doesn't look like freedom to me. I burn off stress by developing other interests and using my free time jealously to recharge my batteries. There are a million reasons why closeted gays in Jesusland cannot or will not migrate to friendlier places. Life is a series of trade offs and those who have more options often can't understand the choices of those who may have less or no options.

on February 20, 2014 at 1:57 PM

@11 "Homophobia is associated with lower levels of education and lower levels of income"

Acting, murdering homophobia could be : I don't know murderers or would-be murderers. But I know one straight homophobe who is positively afraid that some gays will come and rape him, and who reacts to gays the same way he reacts to dogs : by trying to hide his fear and not succeeding. Surprise, surprise, he has a PhD, and he comes from a bourgeois background.

A recurring joke in his bourgeois family was "remember that kid who was better in school than all of us, his mother couldn't stop babbling about him, it was so tiresome ? Hey, guess what, he turned out... gay ! I bet his mother shuts up when the topic of her son comes by now, haha, karma is so sweet !"

Isn't homophobia more closely associated with conservative attitudes, including towards religion, than with poverty ? Of course, poverty and ill education is rampant in areas of strong conservativism like the bible belt, since conservatives feed on each other, and conservatives can only become rich by sucking 99 conservatives into deep poverty.

sissoucat on February 20, 2014 at 2:10 PM

If you've got unregistered comments hidden, @19 is worth reading.

Joe Glibmoron on February 20, 2014 at 2:30 PM

14

please cite the science that supports your superstitions...

on February 20, 2014 at 2:44 PM

since all homosexuals have a shortened lifespan it is relative.
relatively speaking.

on February 20, 2014 at 2:48 PM

"Homosexual" people who are secure in their sexual identities simply do not obsess with what conservative people believe.
Expect Danny to out himself any day now as a closet republican.......

on February 20, 2014 at 2:54 PM

danny, get back to slog when "homophobia" becomes as dangerous as homosexuality.....

on February 20, 2014 at 3:03 PM

@22: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFp5PPSTi…

Hanoumatoi on February 20, 2014 at 7:18 PM

@19 I'm thoroughly humbled and amazed by your strength and clarity. I hope all the good work and self sacrifice you've gone through some day leads to the freedom you've been denied. Take care.

Really Now... on February 20, 2014 at 8:45 PM

26

still waiting for the science that proves there is no 'god'......

on February 21, 2014 at 10:15 AM

@28: The existence of divine beings isn't falsifiable; therefore, science cannot disprove it. This is sort of an issue of definitions, here. That said, the existence of divine beings isn't PARSIMONIOUS.
Lads, tally up another idiot who thinks that religion and science somehow mix!

venomlash on February 21, 2014 at 10:56 AM

Bad headline choice, and besides, that dog won't fly.

"Let me tell you, young Tristan, and you too, Isolde, if you care to listen; there is no pleasure worth sacrificing for the sake of five extra years in the old peoples's home in Weston-super-Mare." (H Rumpole)

And this one only costs two and a half? I'd call that a bit of an oopsie.

vennominon on February 21, 2014 at 3:51 PM

@30: True. People like their little pleasures, and many seem to gain as much enjoyment from bigotry as others get from booze and cigarettes.

Joe Glibmoron on February 21, 2014 at 5:19 PM

And yet Fred Phelps still lives...

fashnable1 on February 21, 2014 at 8:23 PM

I added years to my life by moving away from Fresno.

milemarker on February 22, 2014 at 4:33 PM

In example 1, I think it has something to do with the stress of being constantly angry. In example 2, I think it has a lot more to do with suicides and homicides. Did they not bother to break it down by cause of death? That's some pretty simple statistics there, kids.

gromm on February 22, 2014 at 5:22 PM

This is a good case for Darwin's theory of evolution. The homophobic (republican) morons will slowly die at a more rapid rate than the more sane and well adjusted Democratic counterparts. This is a good thing for the universe. Keep up the hatred, you racist, homophobic neanderthals, maybe by the time my grand kids grow up they won't have to deal with you jerks. Good riddance.

longwayhome on February 23, 2014 at 12:34 AM

Thank you #19.

Still Thinking on February 25, 2014 at 9:25 PM

Homophobia Kills Homophobes

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