人兽性交

鈥淚t鈥檚 a loaded subject, but let鈥檚 get right down to it: gay men, on average, die significantly younger than the rest of the population.鈥� So begins an article posted on insure.com, a publicly traded online insurance brokerage. The source for the article is identified as none other than 鈥淒r. Paul Cameron, the President of the Family Research Institute, [who] published a study in Psychological Reports that confirmed a 20-year life expectancy gap for actively gay men.鈥�

The study in question in fact did nothing of the sort. Its author is a who for more than 25 years has circulated bogus, homophobic 鈥渞esearch findings鈥� in pay-to-publish vanity magazines like Psychological Reports (which will publish most anybody willing to pay $27.50 a page). Cameron鈥檚 goal, as he says quite candidly, is to provide 鈥渁mmunition for those who want laws adopted banning homosexual acts throughout the United States.鈥� (In fact, such laws were struck down as unconstitutional by the 2003 Supreme Court ruling in .) Cameron's propaganda is so transparently false and aimed merely at defaming homosexuals that the Southern Poverty Law Center added his Family Research Institute to its list of hate groups in 2005.

One of Cameron鈥檚 most infamous works is his 1983 鈥済ay obituary study,鈥� for which he used obituaries published in gay newspapers at the height of the AIDS crisis to conclude that gay men die on average at 43. 鈥淕ay Men Die 20 Years Younger,鈥� which was written by insure.com company blogger Joseph White, is obviously based on the gay obituary study, even though Walter Olson, a senior fellow at the conservative Manhattan Institute, thoroughly the study in 1997 in the online magazine Slate.

The average age of death for AIDS victims, Olson noted, was about 40. For Cameron鈥檚 figure of 43 years old to hold true, he pointed out, gay people who never contract AIDS must have a life expectancy of no more than 46 years 鈥� a truly absurd proposition. 鈥淟ooked at another way,鈥� Olson reported, 鈥渋f even half the gay male population stays HIV-negative and lives to an average age of 75, an average overall life span of 43 implies that gay males with AIDS die at an implausibly early age (11, actually).鈥�

Despite Cameron鈥檚 total lack of credibility and professional accreditation 鈥� he was expelled from the American Psychological Association in 1983 for ethical violations 鈥� his work is often cited favorably by anti-gay hate groups, and it still pops up regularly in conservative religious sermons.

But what鈥檚 it doing on insure.com?

Although insure.com is a regular sponsor of conservative commentator Bill O鈥橰eilly鈥檚 radio show, by all appearances it鈥檚 an established mainstream business website. Insure.com, which as 鈥渁n online consumer insurance information service鈥� that allows visitors to obtain insurance quotes from more than 200 leading insurers, regularly wins Web design and Web commerce awards. The site is not a public discussion forum. Its owners strictly control its content, and the vast majority of its articles 鈥� described as 鈥渁 vast library of originally authored insurance articles 鈥� not available from any other source鈥� 鈥攄eal with topics like quarterly car insurance rate reports and tips for discussing rider policies with a homeowners insurance agent. It鈥檚 hardly a typical venue for promoting the work of a raving homophobe like Cameron, who once said: 鈥淗omosexuality is an infectious appetite. It is like the dog that gets a taste for blood after killing its first victim and desires to get more victims thereafter with a ravenous hunger.鈥�

Last month, bloggers at boxturtlebulletin.com, which delivers 鈥渘ews analysis and fact-checking of anti-gay rhetoric,鈥� privately contacted insure.com CEO Robert Bland to make sure that Bland knew all about Cameron鈥檚 background, including his praise for Nazi Rudolph H枚ss, commandant of the Auschwitz concentration camp, for how he 鈥渄ealt with鈥� gays. The bloggers after Bland wrote back, informing them he had no intention of removing the article from the website. 鈥淚t contains no factual errors and no editorial bias or slant whatsoever,鈥� Bland wrote in a July 12 post to the boxturtlebulletin.com comments section.

Addressing the implications of Cameron鈥檚 findings for the life insurance industry, the insure.com article concludes that despite the gross disparity in life spans, 鈥渘o life insurance companies charge elevated rates to gay men. Then again, perhaps the issue is still too sensitive for such realistic evaluation.鈥�

Bland, in his correspondence with the boxturtlebulletin bloggers, his belief that such a 鈥渞ealistic evaluation鈥� should be based at least in part on the work of Paul Cameron: 鈥淭here鈥檚 a human interest story to be researched here on why all U.S. life insurers decline HIV-positive applicants (many of whom are healthy and have been for two decades) but will not even attempt to segregate gays who, according to a growing body of evidence, may have a much shorter lifespan than non-gays.鈥�