Hate Kills: How Homophobia Takes Years Off of Your Life

[xchrom]

http://www.alternet.org/personal-health/hate-kills-how-homophobia-takes-years-your-life




There’s a price to be paid for homophobia, and it’s a steep one: Approximately two and one-half years off of your life.

That’s the conclusion of a provocative new research paper, which examines the social attitudes and death rates of a large, representative sample of Americans over two recent decades.

“We found evidence that anti-gay prejudice is associated with elevated mortality risk among heterosexuals, over and above multiple established risk factors,” writes a research team led by Mark Hatzenbuehler of Columbia University. “In particular, there was a 2.5-year life expectancy difference between individuals with high vs. low levels of anti-gay prejudice.”

The cause, the researchers write in the American Journal of Public Health, may be homophobes’ higher stress levels. It appears all that intense discomfort takes a physical toll.

[unblock]

1. not soon enough.

sorry, that was mean, mean, mean

[daleanime]

2. K&R....

[Heidi]

3. Kick, kick, kick!!!!

And mornin', sunshine!

[xchrom]

4. Good Gracious -- how are you Dah-link?!?! i'm dressed for tornados today...

Kiss-Kiss, Dah-link!

[Heidi]

7. I _adore_ that your footwear

isn't white! Memorial Day will be here soon enough.

[xchrom]

8. GASP! Heaven Forbid! nt

[ck4829]

5. I'm sure that there are health risks involved when you are looking for specks in other people's eyes

Except you have a plank in your own.

And I'm willing to bet that if you looked at racists, sexists, hypocrites, moral entrepreneurs, etc., you would see something similar. Everyone else is a problem, everyone else has a problem, not them, not ever. And that could potentially lead to that belief becoming all-encompassing, and that some part of them believes they are the definition of good health (Because they envision that all the things they hate are not), and they really aren't healthy at all.

[marmar]

6. k/r