Date: Tue, 08 Jul 1997 05:32:17 -1000
From: Rod Swift <rod@ucc.gu.uwa.edu.au> (by way of lambda@aloha.net (Martin Rice))
Subject: SB 057:  Retort:  HONOLULU STAR-BULLETIN, July 7, 1997

> Aloha ahi ahi kakou.
> 
> Just when you start to feel smug about your papers' alleged enlightened
> editorial stances, a "gem" like this finds its way into print . . . .
> 
> HONOLULU STAR-BULLETIN
> P.O. Box 3080
> Honolulu, Hawai`i 96802
> letters@starbulletin.com
> 
> July 7, 1997
> 
> 
> LETTER TO THE EDITOR:  Southern Baptists will live longer than homosexuals
> 
> Since the average lifespan of a male homosexual is only about 42 years,

For anyone wishing to counteract this LIE (yes, it is one, of
course...) the statistic cited is one of Dr Paul Cameron.  This
claim has been refuted many times over and it has been exposed as
misleading.  It was determined by a clearly flawed sampling
method -- that of comparing obituaries of urban gay publication
with the obituaries of general, daily, mainstream newspapers.

Naturally, one could understand that the skewing in favour of
a younger age comes from a number of reasons:  1) the general
focus of many gay publications in urban areas is targetted at a
predominantly youthful audience (under 40, one would say).  2)
the placing of obituaries in such publications often is symbolic
of the demise of someone before their time, esp. due to
HIV-related illnesses and the rate of such obituaries appearing
in such young-gay-targetted publications overwhelmingly weigh
towards profiling people cut down before the prime of their life.
3) Generally, over the time of the claimed study, younger and
younger gay adults were becoming more politically and socially
active in community groups and organisations, and hence such
visible, mid-age adults' untimely deaths had a greater chance of
coverage.

On the other hand, obituaries in newspapers predominantly appear
for people whom are elderly, and especially so for the very
elderly.  Cameron's study itself even demonstrates the skewing of
data collection -- his claimed age-at-death of heterosexuals was
years above that of the average life expectancy for the US
population.

Hence, in one study, he moves the goal posts for heterosexual
life expectancy to longer while clearly introducing huge
data-sampling problems through the use of selected, rather than
random, data.

More data can be found on Dr Paul Cameron at:
	http://www.qrd.org/QRD/rrr/cameron.html

[I think that's the URL]

Rod "...just in case you want to write a letter to them and tell
them how wrong their writer is!" Swift :)