Church says gay sex ‘hazardous to health’ Published on Friday 27 July 2012 00:29
THE Catholic Church in Scotland has claimed that active homosexuals are endangering their own health and could shorten their lifespans, prompting a charity set up by the late MP David Cairns to accuse it of being “homophobic”. The spokesman for the Church in Scotland, Peter Kearney, said that a “vast” body of evidence showed that practising homosexuals could live as much as 20 years less than heterosexuals, describing gay sex as “very, very hazardous”. The David Cairns Foundation, set up to support causes in his name, slammed the tone of the Church’s views, as gay rights groups said the claims were based on “baseless nonsense” and out-of-date research. The ongoing row comes after The Scotsman revealed on Wednesday that Archbishop-elect of Glasgow, Philip Tartaglia, had suggested that the death of the gay Labour MP David Cairns had been linked to his homosexuality. Despite apologising, Mr Kearney then defended the Archbishop-Elect’s views. He said on Scotland Tonight there was a “conspiracy of silence” which silenced what he claimed was significant evidence that gay sex “reduces your life span”. The claims made by the Church appear to relate to research from Canada, which found gay men in Vancouver had a life expectancy of between eight and 21 years lower than heterosexuals. However, the authors of the Vancouver study subsequently revised their research, insisting that the figures related only to the 1980s when high rates of mortality appeared due to the impact of HIV-Aids. They said, if they were to repeat their work today, the life expectancy for gay and bisexual men “would be greatly improved” thanks to medical advancements. Jamie Glackin, of The David Cairns Foundation, said last night: “Despite the half-hearted apology offered by the Bishop on Tuesday evening, Mr Kearney continued to support the Bishop’s comments in a manner that we and many others would consider to be homophobic.” He said that the Church had also failed to so far donate any money to the foundation, and called on it to do so. Gay rights groups also condemned Mr Kearney’s comments. Colin Macfarlane, director of gay rights charity Stonewall Scotland, said: “As if Archbishop-elect Tartaglia’s vile comments about the late David Cairns were not offensive enough, we now have the director of the Catholic Church’s media office adding insult to injury by claiming being gay leads to an early death. His claims are baseless nonsense.” Tom French, policy coordinator for the Equality Network, said: “The leadership of the Catholic Church have sunk to a new low in their campaign against equal rights for LGBT people.”
