Exposing Junk Science About Same-Sex Behavior

From Box Turtle Bulletin:

In June we noticed that Insure.com, an online insurance broker, was making false and defamatory statements about gay men in two of his articles. Specifically, the articles — which were written by Insure.com staff — relied on a non-representative AIDS study from the early 90’s and fraudulent “researcher” Paul Cameron to claim “the life expectancy of gay males to be at least 20 years below average”….

We brought this to the attention of Bob Bland, Insure.com’s CEO, and provided careful documentation and resources to show that he and his site were relying on Paul Cameron’s fraudulent “research” and on deliberately misstated conclusions from an HIV study at the height of the AIDS crisis. Bland promised to look into the situation….

Now it appears that Bland has become better informed.

Gone is the article claiming that gay men die 20 years younger than their counterparts and in it’s place is one that purports to address The life insurance outlook for HIV-positive gay men.

In short, the life insurance outlook for HIV-positive gay men is identical to that of all HIV-positive persons, whatever their gender or orientation. Persons diagnosed with HIV are categorically turned down when wishing to purchase life insurance. While there is clear indication that HIV infected persons are living longer and that this may not be the death sentence that it once was, insurance companies treat HIV infection like heart disease, breast cancer, and other life threatening diseases: with denial.

But as for sexual orientation, this is not a question asked by insurance companies. Which clearly irks the author of Insure.com’s latest piece….

Read the entire entry by Timothy Kincaid at Box Turtle Bulletin.

From Ex-Gay Watch:

As our readers may be aware, it was recently reported that the popular online insurance portal Insure.com has posted disturbing and completely inaccurate information about the lifespan of gay people. Worse, the source for their claims is the discredited and largely avoided Dr. Paul Cameron and his Family Research Institute.

Insure.com CEO Robert Bland defended the use of Cameron’s data in the articles, the core claim of which is that “a gay lifestyle takes away 8-20 years from the average lifespan.”

[...]

This is not the first time Bland has mixed a divisive personal platform with his openly traded corporation. He is also the chairman of the Illinois Right to Life Committee. As far back as 1999, financial forums contained chatter of concern over his poor judgment for combining that work with Insure.com….

Read the entire post by David Roberts.