New Study Finds Early Death in Gay 'Marriages'

"Gay-adopted" children may be placed in vulnerable family situations, suggests a new report released amid an on-going debate over whether homosexuals experience shortened life spans.

Psychologists and conservative scientists who analyzed the life spans and census registries from Denmark and Norway found that gay couples lived about 24 years less than heterosexual couples.

"On average, in Norway and Denmark – where same-sex marriage is legal – married lesbians lived to age 56 and married gay men to age 52," said one of the study's presenters, Dr. Paul Cameron of the conservative Colorado-based think tank Family Research Institute, in a press statement.

The findings suggest that the children of same-sex couples are placed in vulnerable situations as they are more likely to experience the death of one or both parents earlier on in life than they would with a married mother and father.

"A gay couple of 35 is as close to death as a married heterosexual couple of 55," commented Cameron. "Divorce is twice as frequently among married homosexuals in Norway and Denmark [even more frequent if kids are involved]. It doesn't make sense to take vulnerable children and place them in the risky situation generated by homosexual couples."

Cameron's remarks were based on a report delivered at the oldest regional psychological association in the United States - the Eastern Psychological Association - which released a comprehensive 27-page report at a four-day annual meeting in Philadelphia, March 22-25.

In the study, Denmark, a country with the longest history of gay marriages, reportedly recorded that men in heterosexual marriages between the years 1990 and 2002 died at a median age of 74 while the 561 gay-partnered men documented a median age of death of 51. In Norway, men married to women died at a median age of 77 while the gay-partnered men died at a median age of 52.

Furthermore, Denmark women married to men died at a median age of 78, compared to a median age of 56 for the 91 lesbians recorded. Married women in Norway died at a median age of 81, compared to a median age of 56 years for the 6 lesbian partners.

Besides early death being linked to homosexual lifestyles, the study claimed that health problems resulting from feelings of homophobia were likely to make gays and lesbians feel depressed and lead to frequent excessive drinking, illicit drug abuse, smoking, suicide, and acquisition of HIV and other sexually transmitted infections (STI).

Cameron and his son, Dr. Kirk Cameron of the Family Research Institute, noted that most pro-gay research has excluded older adults, those aged 60 and above, thus increasing the size of the sample population and exaggerating the reporting of homosexual prevalence as well.

Because the study relied on long-term data instead of a one-time survey, it did not have a sampling margin of error.