An economics professor at a public university in Virginia believes the gay “lifestyle” is worse than smoking or being obese, so gay people should be forced to pay more for insurance.
Walter E. Williams is a professor of economics at George Mason University, a prestigious public university in Virginia. He also is a popular guest host for Rush Limbaugh’s radio show, and pens a conservative syndicated column.Â
In his latest, “Things I Don’t Understand,” Williams, who is 78, claims people who are gay are inherently unhealthy, like smokers or people who are obese.
Noting that life insurance companies charge more for people who smoke or are obese, Williams identifies what he says is an “important exception”: gay people, suggesting for some reason they get preferential treatment by not being charged more.
According to the International Journal of Epidemiology, life expectancy at age 20 for homosexual and bisexual men is eight to 20 years less than for all men. That’s a lifestyle shortening of life expectancy greater than obesity and tobacco use. Yet one never hears of insurance companies advertising lower premiums for heterosexual men. You say, “That would be discrimination.” You’re right, but why is it acceptable for insurance companies to discriminate against smokers and the obese but not homosexuals?
Williams is citing a 1997 study that tracked gay and bisexual men from 1987-1992. Given the lack of scientific advances just a few years into the discovery of HIV/AIDS, it’s not unusual life expectancy would have been lower several decades ago.
Politifact adds that the “U.S. death rate from HIV was nine times higher in 1990 than it was in 2010, the latest year for the data.”
“It’s really a matter of politics,” Williams continues, “as seen by the journal’s publication of an article titled “Gay life expectancy revisited” (http://tinyurl.com/25ejq2d). The publication had to soft-pedal its study results because of complaints that pointing out life expectancy differences between heterosexuals and homosexuals had become fuel for homophobia. The bottom line is that homosexuals have far greater political power and sympathy than smokers and the obese.”
“Homosexuals” may have far greater political power and sympathy than smokers and the obese, but not the power over Mother Nature. HIV/AIDS is not the death sentence it once was, not all gay people are HIV-positive, and this is not 1997.
Travis Gettys at The Raw Story notes in response to Williams’ attack, that a “more recent study by the Mailman School of Public Health found that LGBT people who lived in communities with high levels of anti-gay prejudice live an average of 12 years less than those who live in less prejudiced communities.”
Another recent study found that conservative attitudes increased the risk of suicide for LGBT teens by 20 percent.
Another study, by Columbia University, found that regardless of orientation, teens who are raised in conservative neighborhoods or towns are more likely to attempt suicide than those raised in more liberal ones.
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