Cameron on homosexuality? Gotta be bad

Paul and Kirk Cameron have made a study of the average age of homosexuals when they die, and have used this to argue that the prevalence of homosexuality is overestimated, since the estimates ignores that homosexuals die young.

Federal Distortion Of Homosexual Footprint (Ignoring Early Gay Death?) (.pdf file inbedded in webpage)

Paul Cameron claims to have presented this paper at the Eastern Psychological Association’s convention in Philadelphia on March 23, 2007. I say claims, because he is lying.

In the study, the Camerons looked at the age of death of openly homosexuals in Canada and people in registered partnerships in Denmark and Norway. At a glance, this might sound reasonable, but this ignores the fact that older people are more unlikely to publicly self-identify as homosexuals, and that the average age of people entering into registered partnerships in Denmark and Norways had been below 40 since it was introduced in 1989 and 1993.

Box Turtle Bulletin, who self-identify as neutral on the matter (focusing on civility and facts), has more here: Paul Cameron's Footprint.

Warren Throckmorton, an advocate of gay conversion therapy, attacks the study here: Only the gay die young? Part 2 - Danish epidemiologist reviews the Cameron study

One thing both of these posts don't take into consideration is the fact that inheritage is easier if you are in a registered partnership, especially if you haven't been together for a longer period. This would be an important incitament for couples, where one of the partners are fatally ill, to get registered.

Via Dispatches from the Culture Wars