From John at AMERICAblog:

The leader of a conservative Christian lobby group says that gays should be required to wear warning labels.

"We put warning labels on cigarette packs because we know that smoking takes one to two years off the average life span, yet we 'celebrate' a lifestyle that we know spreads every kind of sexually transmitted disease and takes at least 20 years off the average life span according to the 2005 issue of the revered scientific journal Psychological Reports," said Rev. Bill Banuchi, executive director of the New York Christian Coalition.

The journal regularly publishes articles described by many mainstream psychologists as misleading and faulty. The homosexuality morbidity study was conducted by the conservative anti-gay Family Research Institute.

In fact, the "study" in question was done by Paul Cameron, the head of a hate group - literally, the Southern Poverty Law Center has labeled Cameron's group a "hate group" - Cameron was thrown out of the scientific profession twenty years ago for his hate research. But that doesn't stop the Christian Coalition from using hate literature and proposing Nazi solutions to brand gays.

You know, I might be convinced to go along with this Reverend Banuchi if we could be consistent about this labeling business. Let's apply this same brilliant prinicple more widely and also label everyone who participates in anything that any crackpot has determined to be 'unhealthy' or anyone who belongs to any group of citizens with a 'below-average' lifespan. I'd start with these characteristics and groups:

1. poor
   
2. uneducated
   
3. without health insurance
   
4. jobless
   
5. has job, but not a member of a powerful labor union so no job security
   
6. serving in US military
   
7. hateful to the point of always teetering on the precipice of cardiac arrest
   
8. gay, but in denial to wife and kids
   
9. gay, but pretending to be a straight republican mayor, congressman or senator
   
10. red state resident
    

I'm sure there are more....anyone? What would be on your list?

ADDENDUM: Gay women are notoriously low contributors to the STD risk pool. Do we get gold stars?

UPDATE: The ever-sharp Wonkette has weighed in on this topic and promises to "milk this one for a bit."
- posted by TroutGrrrl @ 12:57 PM | PermaLink | |