Millions of people all over the United States are suffering from addiction to different kinds of drugs. And millions of people all over the world are suffering from the abuse and addiction to different kinds of drugs. Some begin to get gripped in the vice of these drugs early in life, while others discover the euphoria of drugs later in life. In all, all those who submit themselves to the ravages of drug abuse definitely enjoy the experience, and will fight doggedly against any suggestion that drugs hurt. However, it does hurt those who adapt themselves to it, and hurts those that care for them. In view of the fact that drugs eventually destroy lives, governments and authorities wade in to rescue and protect those who are gripped in its claws. The society defies the protest of the addicts, not just because it kills only its victims sweetly and they enjoy it, but because it costs the society. And once governments are involved in anything, there will likely be forms of politics associated with it. Therefore, we must note fairly the effect of social politics to every facet of society that has to do with mores and morals. In the same vein, we should expect to find, at least, skirmishes of politics in the access to, and control of drugs. And without fail, a close examination will reveal a glaring jolt of politics in the issues of sexuality as well.
The vehemence with which sexual practices are upheld or condemned by society, civil authority and the religious rites, seems to depend on how many people within the upper or lower wrungs of society have adopted them. That seems to suggest that pedophilia, homosexuality, bestiality and every other form of unnatural sexual practice and deviance will eventually find their way up the ladder of public acceptance once the cream of the society are willing to show themselves in it publicly.
Although those who practice unnatural and uncommon sexual activities may enjoy them, it is important that we mark out some of the cost of their pleasure. It does cost them, and it costs the society dearly. Their sexual preference comes at a tremendous price. Let’s pick on the gay lifestyle. We hope to pick on the lesbian lifestyle at another occasion. Nonetheless, because there are no comprehensive data on the medical consequences of the homosexual lifestyle in Belize, I will base this summary on studies done by Harvard Medical Professors, and other published data from the San Francisco Department of Public Health, New England Journal of Medicine, Journal of the American Medical Association, and American Journal of Epidemiology. And of note is that throughout history, the major civilizations and their major religions have condemned homosexuality. Until 1961 homosexual acts were illegal throughout America.
HOMOSEXUALITY EFFECTS ON LIFESPAN
Smokers and drug addicts don’t live as long as non-smokers or non-addicts, so we consider smoking and narcotics abuse harmful. The typical life-span of homosexuals suggests that their activities are more destructive than smoking, and as dangerous as drugs.
Obituaries numbering 6,516 from 16 U.S. homosexual journals over the past 12 years were compared to a large sample of obituaries from regular newspapers. The obituaries from the newspapers were similar to U.S. averages for longevity; the medium age of married men was 75. And 80% of those men can be said to have died old (age 65 or older) for unmarried or divorced men, the median age was 57, and 32% of them died old. Married women averaged age 79 at death; and 85% died old. Unmarried and divorced women averaged 71, and 60% of them died old.
For the homosexuals, less than 2% survived to old age. If AIDS was the cause of death, the median age was 39. In that survey, for 829 gays who died from something other than AIDS, the median age of death was 42, and only 9% died old.
Of this survey and similar surveys, gays were 116 times more apt to be murdered; 24 times more apt to commit suicide; and had an accident traffic rate 18 times the rate of comparably aged males. Heart attacks, cancer and liver failure were exceptionally common. Twenty percent of lesbians died of murder, suicide or accident – a rate 487 times higher than that of other females aged 25-44.
Homosexuals rode into the dawn of sexual freedom and returned with a plague that gives every indication of destroying most of them, those who care for them, and those around them. They returned with the plague of AIDS and its accompanying lethal chain of dangerous epidemics. Those who treat AIDS patients are at great risk, not only from HIV infection, but also from new strains of other diseases. Those who are housed with AIDS patients are also at risk.
Dr. Max Essex, Chair of the Harvard AIDS institute, warned the American Congress in 1992 that “AIDS has already led to other kinds of dangerous epidemics …. If AIDS is not eliminated, other new lethal microbes will emerge, and neither safe sex nor drug free practices will prevent them.” And since then, we have witnessed new strains of drug-resistant AIDS in different parts of the United States, especially San Francisco.
DISEASE SWAPPING
The typical sexual practices of homosexuals are a medical horror story – imagine exchanging saliva, feces, semen and or blood with dozens of different men each year. Imagine drinking urine, ingesting feces and experiencing rectal trauma on a regular basis. Often, these encounters occur while the participants are drunk, high, or in an orgy setting. Further, many of them occur in extremely unsanitary places (bathrooms, dirty peep shows, etc), or, because homosexuals travel so frequently, in other parts of the world.
Every year, a quarter or more of homosexuals visit another country. Fresh American germs get taken to Europe, Africa, Asia, and even Central America, etc. And fresh pathogens from those continents return to America. Foreign homosexuals usually visit the U.S. and participate in what may be termed biological swapmeet.
PATTERN OF INFECTION
Unfortunately, the danger of these exchanges does not merely affect homosexuals. Gays carried HIV from New York, where it was first discovered among gays, to the rest of the world. Most of the women in California who got AIDS through heterosexual activity got it from men who engaged in homosexual behavior. Most of the men who get AIDS in Belize today through heterosexual activity get it from women who engaged in heterosexual activity with men who engage in homosexual activity, and vice versa. The vicious cycle of the AIDS epidemic starts from gays, and stops with gays. If there must be a solution to the ravages of AIDS, it has to center around the gay incidence. Even the rare form of airborne scarlet fever that stalked San Francisco in 1976 also started among homosexuals. Gay and bisexual men make up less than 7% of the population of Los Angeles County, but account for more than 75% of the people living with HIV/AIDS. Let the gays in Belize stand up to responsibility and dignity and help stem the tide of this ravaging HIV/AIDS, for it is a gay disease, but hurts everyone.
LET US SHOW GENUINE COMPASSION
We as a society, rightly, should be genuinely concerned with health risks, because gays and their lifestyle impact our taxes and everyone’s chances of illness and injury. Because we care about them, smokers are discouraged from smoking by higher insurance premiums, taxes on cigarettes and bans against smoking in public. These social pressures cause many to quit. They likewise encourage non-smokers to stay non-smokers.
Homosexuals are sexually troubled people engaging in dangerous activities. Because we care about them and those tempted to join them, it is important that we neither encourage nor legitimize such a destructive lifestyle. It should not be a matter of one person passing moral judgment against another, because most of those judges themselves may be found to be engaging in activities which would have been completely unacceptable in a traditional or moralistic society. And all concerned Belizeans should not sit back and hope that the gay/AIDS connection will drive designated NGOs or such to fight against legitimizing the gay lifestyle. This is because there is no urgency to stop the spread of AIDS (don’t mind the politics) – AIDS is a money making disease. Bird Flu was stopped, and is still being hunted militantly, because it was a money losing disease.
NEXT: What causes homosexual desires, and can it be changed?
Your brother and friend,