Disease rates

"During the past two decades, an explosive growth in both the prevalence and types of sexually transmitted diseases has occurred. Up to 55 percent of homosexual men with anorectal complaints have gonorrhea; 80 percent of the patients with syphilis are homosexuals. Chlamydia is found in 15 percent of asymptomatic homosexual men, and up to one third of homosexuals have active anorectal herpes simplex virus"

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/sites/entrezDb=pubmed&Cmd=ShowDetailView&TermToSearch=2242700&ordinalpos=4&itool=EntrezSystem2.PEntrez.Pubmed.Pubmed_Resul
tsPanel.Pubmed_RVDocSum

Higher rates of AIDS - 63 percent of new cases

http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/mm5424a2.htm


Drug use

Among homosexual men, ages 18 to 25: 79.2 percent have used marijuana; 75 percent have used psychotherapeutics for nonmedical reasons; 65.2 percent have used stimulants such as dexedrine and benzedrine; 62.5 percent have used inhalants such as amyl or butyl nitrate; and 50.2 percent have used hallucinogens such as LSD. Rates among lesbians: marijuana, 82 percent; psychotherapeutics, 58.8 percent; stimulants, 52.9 percent; inhalants, 41.2 percent; and hallucinogens, 41.2 percent. Comparing current usage to national usage, homosexuals were found to use drugs with greater frequency: "Among adults aged 18-25, 16.5 percent of men and 9.1 percent of women have used marijuana in the past month, compared with 37.5 per-cent of gay men and 23.5 percent of lesbians."

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1615476/

20 times higher rate of meth use (quoted from LA Times article)

http://www.narth.com/docs/methuse.html

Domestic violence

"Rates of battering victimization among urban MSM are substantially higher than among heterosexual men and possibly heterosexual women. Public health efforts directed toward addressing intimate partner battering among these men are needed."

http://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/abs/10.2105/AJPH.92.12.1964

http://www.springerlink.com/content/r130ql0471892435/

Depression, suicide, mental health

LGB people are at higher risk of mental disorder, suicidal ideation, substance misuse, and deliberate self harm than heterosexual people

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18706118

Findings support recent evidence suggesting that gay, lesbian, and bisexual young people are at increased risk of mental health problems, with these associations being particularly evident for measures of suicidal behavior and multiple disorder.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10530626

Life expectancy of homosexuals

"In a major Canadian centre, life expectancy at age 20 years for gay and bisexual men is 8 to 20 years less than for all men. If the same pattern of mortality were to continue, we estimate that nearly half of gay and bisexual men currently aged 20 years will not reach their 65th birthday. Under even the most liberal assumptions, gay and bisexual men in this urban centre are now experiencing a life expectancy similar to that experienced by all men in Canada in the year 1871"

http://ije.oxfordjournals.org/content/26/3/657.abstract

Statistics on Amsterdam

According to a study in the Netherlands where homosexuality has been accepted and mainstreamed for years, homosexual behavior significantly increases the likelihood of psychiatric, mental and emotional disorders, negating the mindset that society’s lack of tolerance of homosexual behavior and lifestyle produces these psychoses Youth are four times as likely to suffer major depression, almost three times as likely to suffer generalized anxiety disorder, nearly four times as likely to experience conduct disorder, four times as likely to commit suicide, five times as likely to have nicotine dependence, six times as likely to suffer multiple disorders, and more than six times as likely to have attempted suicide.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/11146762

That covers all of my claims. I think you'll find all of the evidence I have provided is from unbiased sources. This refutes the claim that homosexuality does not harm anyone. It clearly harms the individual, the community and society at large.

Here are some more statistics that I don't have direct links to. .

An Amsterdam study found that the average homosexual relationship lasts only 18 months and that "men in homosexual relationships, on average, have eight partners a year outside those relationships." By comparison, more than two-thirds of heterosexual marriages in America last longer than ten years. Maria Xiridou et al.,

"The Contribution of Steady and Casual Partnerships to the Incidence of HIV Infection Among Homosexual Men in Amsterdam,"
AIDS 17, 7 (2003): 1029-1038.

Ricky Behaviors:

Researchers from the University of California, San Francisco found that thirty-six percent of homosexuals engaging in unprotected oral, anal, or vaginal sex failed to disclose that they were HIV positive to casual sex partners.

"Some With HIV Aren't Disclosing Before Sex; UCSF Researcher's 1,397-person Study Presented During aids Conference," The San Francisco Examiner (July 15, 2000)"

A CDC report revealed that, in 1997, 45 percent of homosexuals reporting having had unprotected anal intercourse during the previous six months did not know the HIV serostatus of all their sex partners. Even more alarming, among those who reported having had unprotected anal intercourse and multiple partners, 68 percent did not know the HIV serostatus of their partners

Gay and Bi Men Less Likely to Disclose They Have HIV," GayHealth News (July 18, 2000).

Promiscuity

A.P. Bell and M.S. Weinberg, in their classic study of male and female homosexuality, found that 43 percent of white male homosexuals had sex with 500 or more partners, with 28 percent having 1,000 or more sex partners.

A. P. Bell and M. S. Weinberg, Homosexualities: A Study of Diversity Among Men and Women (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1978), pp. 308, 9; see alsoBell, Weinberg and Hammersmith, Sexual Preference (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1981)

Paul Van de Ven et al., "A Comparative Demographic and Sexual Profile of Older Homosexually Active Men," Journal of Sex Research 34 (1997): 354. Dr. Paul Van de Ven reiterated these results in a private conversation with Dr. Robert Gagnon on September 7, 2000

In their study of the sexual profiles of 2,583 older homosexuals published in Journal of Sex Research, Paul Van de Ven et al., found that only 2.7 percent claimed to have had sex with one partner only. The most common response, given by 21.6 percent of the respondents, was of having a hundred-one to five hundred lifetime sex partners.

Survey Finds 40 percent of Gay Men Have Had More Than 40 Sex Partners," Lambda Report, January/February 1998, p. 20.

A survey conducted by the homosexual magazine Genre found that 24 percent of the respondents said they had had more than a hundred sexual partners in their lifetime. The magazine noted that several respondents suggested including a category of those who had more than a thousand sexual partners.[11]

M. Pollak, "Male Homosexuality," in Western Sexuality: Practice and Precept in Past and Present Times, edited by P. Aries and A. Bejin, pp. 40-61, cited by Joseph Nicolosi in Reparative therapy of Male Homosexuality (Northvale, New Jersey: Jason Aronson Inc., 1991),

In his study of male homosexuality in Western Sexuality: Practice and Precept in Past and Present Times, M. Pollak found that "few homosexual relationships last longer than two years, with many men reporting hundreds of lifetime partners."

David P. McWhirter and Andrew M. Mattison, The Male Couple: How Relationships Develop (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1984), pp. 252, 3.

>> ^curiousity:

Someone's heading for a major depression. I feel for this guy.

Hachi the most loyal dog! I know of his story; I'll have to watch this movie with my son

Brokeback Mountain was brutally depressing.. I uh, won't be watching that one with my son anytime soon, lol.

In reply to this comment by berticus:
brokeback mountain, which actually sent me into a major depression for a few months

and a japanese movie called Hachiko Monogatari that i saw when i was about 15. i thought it was practically ipmossible to find, but what do you know -- someone's put it on youtube! i'm going to have to re-watch it and see if i have the same soppy reaction 15 years later ;


In reply to this comment by UsesProzac:
What are the other two movies, Berti?

In reply to this comment by berticus:
there are maybe.. 3? movies i can think of that have utterly destroyed me and made me cry almost uncontrollably, and this was one.

bjork was just sublime.

brokeback mountain, which actually sent me into a major depression for a few months

and a japanese movie called Hachiko Monogatari that i saw when i was about 15. i thought it was practically ipmossible to find, but what do you know -- someone's put it on youtube! i'm going to have to re-watch it and see if i have the same soppy reaction 15 years later


In reply to this comment by UsesProzac:
What are the other two movies, Berti?

In reply to this comment by berticus:
there are maybe.. 3? movies i can think of that have utterly destroyed me and made me cry almost uncontrollably, and this was one.

bjork was just sublime.

So, listening to it myself, I gotta say I'm in total agreement with Frum on this one.

To make my own personal observation, even to a pro-Hayek ideologue, don't you notice that he doesn't actually propose any economic theory at all? Not a hint of "I think if X happens, Y will result"? The only things he says are the usual political demagoguery of "if government does something, we're all doomed!"

The bumper-sticker version of Keynes's theory is that if a recession comes about from a slump in demand, government should try to step in and create demand by spending money. The Hayek answer given here is essentially "we don't understand economics," with the full meaning being "so when a major depression or recession hits, just bend over and take it like a man."

Keynes essentially says that economics is worthless as a science if it can't tell us what to do in crises like the Great Depression. In fact, that's the meaning of his "In the long run we are all dead" quote, when read in proper context:

But this long run is a misleading guide to current affairs. In the long run we are all dead. Economists set themselves too easy, too useless a task if in tempestuous seasons they can only tell us that when the storm is long past the ocean is flat again.

As for the constant accusations of Keynes being a central planner, this too is based on ignorance. Read Brad DeLong, and this except from Keynes's General Theory.

For the most part, I gotta say that even in a video produced by people who clearly side with Hayek, Keynes comes away looking more rational, and more vindicated by history, while all Hayek does is sputter right-wing red meat, without presenting any rationale or evidence to support his views.

Researchers are looking again at controlled dosages of psychedelics, this time to treat extreme cases of major depression...

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/12/science/12psychedelics.html

thanks a_c i doubt i can find a replacement for that one.. ah well.

i saw brokeback at home, and it actually caused me to go into a major depressive episode. thankfully it didn't last too long and i found a website where other people were going through similar reactions, that helped a lot (and made me feel like slightly less of a total FREAK). it seems a little weird to look back on now, to have had such a strong emotional response to a fictitious movie, but it's nice to know i wasn't alone in feeling that way.

i have seen as many love stories / tragedies as anyone else, some of them gay, but there is something about this one that really slaughtered me. perhaps it's just the combination of great storytelling, directing, acting etc, or perhaps it's something else, i could never quite decide.

heath ledger's death brought it all back again, the timing was eerie, i had been planning on posting a brokeback clip for a little while, approaching gold... then that happened just as i was on 49! i had never given the guy a moment's thought before brokeback, but quickly realised he was going to be one of the 'greats' of this generation. i know all life is valuable, but i do feel sad that i don't get to enjoy seeing what he would've done.

oh god i'm raving on already! don't get me started!

In reply to this comment by alien_concept:
Hey mate, this vid is dead, pfft.
http://www.videosift.com/video/Scene-from-Brokeback-Mountain-The-Seeds-of-Fear

I have to say, I loved your "long, boring summary" of this. I went to watch it with my best friend. We got out of the cinema and he was very quiet, I was chatting away, just an unbelievable film, one of the most tragic love stories ever told. And we got to the car and he just sobbed and sobbed. It touched him so much. Of course it didn't touch me in the same way, although there are plenty of love stories that do, but it was so nice, because finally someone had told a proper story about real love between two men. Anyway, i'll try and find an embed for it if you haven't got round to it. Just thought i'd share that with you, as what you wrote made me think of it and i'm sure you got a similar experience as he had

Thanks for posting. I wish he had also mentioned the difference between unipolar major depression and bipolar disorder. The depressive phases can be identical, but the treatment is often very different.
1 in 10 of women, and 1 in 20 of men will suffer a major depressive illness at some time in their life. It is a VERY common disorder, but diagnosis is often shrouded in the somatic complaints of headaches, back pain, lack of energy, etc. which are all real and not imagined.
When major depression strikes, you feel as if an alien has invaded your body and taken control. You look in the mirror and ask, "where did I go? Where's the real me?" The scary part is not knowing if you will return. Depression is scary.

Eric,
Thanks for this post. Mental Illness is still not well understood in this country.
Sorry if I sound like Sanjay Gupta, but I feel compelled to comment on these medically related posts.

Contrary to the implication of the video, Major Depressive Illness is quite common. The life-time risk of having an episode is about 10% for men and 15-20% for women. My internal medicine buddies tell me they think about 1/3 of the patients they see every day in their office are having symptoms related to depression. Pain is very common, and it's not imagined, it's real. (We don't fully understand why depression intensifies pain) About 80% of patients with depression experience significant anxiety as well.

Antidepressant medications are marginally effective. SSRIs provoked mania in this lady, just like they did in me. My family tree is full of depression, and when mine hit at age 40 I went on SSRIs. MAJOR anxiety, racing thoughts, and insomnia ensued.
We were more likely to have this reaction because we weren't suffering from typical unipolar depression, we had bipolar illness. Many people with bipolar illness don't have much in the way of manic spells. Many times the illness is primarily depressive. So many times the diagnosis is not made because the illness is atypical. I consider this a real risk of SSRIs.

Interestingly, the only pharmacist I personally know who developed major depression declined antidepressants based on what she knew about their side-effects and efficacy.

So what does work? If it's a mild case, I would be hesitant about antidepressants, just eat right, get sleep, exercise out in the sun, and quit obsessing about conflict.
If it's a bad major depression, you need help and you need to see a professional. The normal course of a major depression is 6 to 9 months. That's a long time to be in the crapper, believe you me. Don't let people scare you away from getting treatment. There are options other than meds.