Gay life span 'study' came from discredited research

Sunday, May 15, 2005

On May 7, you published a letter in which the claim is made that the life expectancy of gay men in the United States is 43 years, compared to about 75 for heterosexual men.

This claim is based on a "study" by Paul Cameron, associated at the time with the Family Research Institute.

Cameron's method reportedly was to read obituaries and other articles in gay-oriented, urban newspapers, note the ages of death of the men and average them.

One cannot study life expectancy this way.

Gay men's obituaries are published in many places. Many men born at the same time as those studied are still alive and healthy.

Also, treatment for HIV has advanced substantially since the time this "study" was done.

Online research took me 45 minutes. I think you can devote about the same to significant fact-checking of letters to the editor.

Stephen Farrand

Freeport

scfarrand@suscom-maine.net