This year, I've seen the following image being shared a lot. Specifically, it's been shared plenty in the last week or two, coinciding with the start of Pride Month.
"CHILD GROOMING
Support us at www.irishlightpaper.com
MISPLACED PRIDE
No Pride In Gay Life
THE FACTS
GAYS:
1% OF THE POPULATION
33% OF THE CHILD MOLESTERS
67% OF ALL AIDS CASES
78% HAVE SEXUAL DISEASE
HAVE LIFESPANS 20 YEARS SHORTER THAN NORMAL
28% OF GAY MEN HAVE HAD 200 PARTNERS OR MORE
23% OF CHILDREN WHO HAD LESBIAN MOTHERS HAVE
BEEN SEXUALLY MOLESTED BY A PARENT OR OTHER ADULT
RAPE AND SEXUAL ASSAULT BEFORE AGE OF 16 ARE STRONGLY CORRELATED WITH HOMOSEXUAL BEKAVIOUR
GAYS BELIEVE THE BODY'S WASTE DISPOSAL UNIT IS A SEX ORGAN
THIS IS WHY HOMOSEXUALITY THROUGHOUT WESTERN HISTORY HAS BEEN CLASSIFIED AS A MENTAL DISORDER
AND A CRIMINAL OFFENCE IN ORDER TO PRETECT CHILDREN FROM THIS DANGEROUS BEHAVIOUR
SUICIDE LEVELS AMONG GAYS ARE SIGNIFICANTLY HIGHER THAN HETEROSEXUALS
HOMOSEXUALITY IS THREE TIMES MORE FATAL THAN SMOKING OR OBESITY
THAT'S A LOT TO BE PROUD OF"
Naturally, left wingers got very upset and claimed this was all made up and homophobic lies.
However, I was immediately reminded of the presentation that got the Hwa Chong counselor suspended in 2022 (and maybe he even got fired, who knows?)
Going back to check my notes, many of the claims seemed to be similar or the same.
So I have decided to do a more formal fact check of the claims in the image:
1) 1% OF THE POPULATION
In 1993, the Alan Guttmacher Institute found that 1% of men identified as gay.
A 2021 Gallup study finds that 1.5% of US adults identify as gay.
Some people still believe the claim that 10% of men are gay, but this is based on studies that are widely considered unreliable.
So this claim is true.
2) 33% OF THE CHILD MOLESTERS
In a 1992 study, Freund and Watson reported that: "Previous investigations have indicated that the ratio of sex offenders against female children vs. offenders against male children is approximately 2:1".
Note that this is NOT the same as saying that 33% of gay people are child molesters (as some have [wilfully?] misconstrued it); the exact proportion was explored in a previous post.
Meanwhile, a newer 2007 study reported that: "The percentage of homosexual pedophiles ranges from 9% to 40%, which is approximately 4 to 20 times higher than the rate of adult men attracted to other adult men (using a prevalence rate of adult homosexuality of 2%-4%)."
Though this seems to be about desire rather than action, the numbers cohere.
There does not seem to be other research on this topic.
3) 67% OF ALL AIDS CASES
The CDC reports that "In 2022, gay, bisexual, and other men who reported male-to-male sexual contact accounted for 67% (21,400) of the 31,800 estimated new HIV infections".
If you stip out bisexual men and men who have sex with men, it would be a bit less than 67%, and one could quibble about HIV vs AIDS, but the numbers are around there.
4) 78% HAVE SEXUAL DISEASE
In 1981, the Washington Post reported that:
Among all 4,212, 38 percent had had gonorrhea; 24 percent urethritis (inflammation); 18 percent venereal growths; 13 percent syphilis; 10 percent, hepatitis (liver disease, transmitted by a virus) and 9.4 percent, some form of herpes, another virus disease. Also reported were intestinal diseases like amebiasis, shigellosis and enteritis, and meningitis, a serious brain or spinal cord infection.Sixty-six percent had had an episode of pediculosis -- infestation of head or crab lice. If these are included, then 78 percent of all respondents had experienced at least one sexually transmitted disorder.
I could not find other or more recent data on this, as more recent surveys weren't as comprehensive. For example, a 2024 Danish study only measured chlamydia, gonorrhoea and syphilis. Other studies used convenience samples from STD clinics, so sampling would be an issue.
5) HAVE LIFESPANS 20 YEARS SHORTER THAN NORMAL
In a 1998 study, Cameron et al found that "homosexual activity may be associated with a lifespan shortened by 20 to 30 years".
This study is considered by some to be unreliable, but a 1997 study by Hogg et al found that "life expectancy at age 20 years for gay and bisexual men is 8 to 20 years less than for all men", so the two studies have a little overlap in their estimates.
Anyhow, antiretrovirals have since increased gay life expectancy, so the 20 year estimate should no longer be accurate.
6) 28% OF GAY MEN HAVE HAD 200 PARTNERS OR MORE
I couldn't find a study reporting this specific number, but this seems to be an undercount.
Bell & Weinberg (1978) reported that 43% of White Homosexual Men (WHM) had had 500 or more partners, and the figure for Black Homosexual Men (BHM) was 33%
In a 1997 study, Van de Ven et al reported that among "older homosexually active men", 21.6% had had 101-500 male sex partners and 10.2%-15.7% had had 501-1000 or >1000 male partners (the reporting of the latter was odd). So at least 20.4% had had over 500 partners, and 42% had had over 100 partners.
7) 23% OF CHILDREN WHO HAD LESBIAN MOTHERS HAVE BEEN SEXUALLY MOLESTED BY A PARENT OR OTHER ADULT
In a 2012 study, Regnerus reported that "3% of LMs said yes when asked whether "a parent or other adult caregiver ever touched you in a sexual way, forced you to touch him or her in a sexual way, or forced you to have sexual relations""
8) RAPE AND SEXUAL ASSAULT BEFORE AGE OF 16 ARE STRONGLY CORRELATED WITH HOMOSEXUAL BEHAVIOUR
In a 2012 study, Roberts et al reported that "Epidemiological studies find a positive association between physical and sexual abuse, neglect, and witnessing violence in childhood and same-sex sexuality in adulthood". Plus, this study used instrumental variables to estimate the causal effect of the abuse.
In a 2001 study, Tomeo et al reported that "gay men and lesbian women reported a significantly higher rate of childhood molestation than did heterosexual men and women. Forty-six percent of the homosexual men in contrast to 7% of the heterosexual men reported homosexual molestation. Twenty-two percent of lesbian women in contrast to 1% of heterosexual women reported homosexual molestation".
9) GAYS BELIEVE THE BODY'S WASTE DISPOSAL UNIT IS A SEX ORGAN
This is a philosophical claim rather than an empirical one, but I would note that urine is waste, and the penis, which disposes of urine, is a sex organ.
10) THIS IS WHY HOMOSEXUALITY THROUGHOUT WESTERN HISTORY HAS BEEN CLASSIFIED AS A MENTAL DISORDER AND A CRIMINAL OFFENCE IN ORDER TO PRETECT CHILDREN FROM THIS DANGEROUS BEHAVIOUR
Mental disorder is a relatively modern concept so homosexuality wouldn't have been classified as one throughout western history (some would say homosexuality is a relatively modern concept too, but homosexual behavior has been conceptualised for much, much longer).
Meanwhile, homosexual sex was criminalised by Christians, but not during the Classical period.
11) SUICIDE LEVELS AMONG GAYS ARE SIGNIFICANTLY HIGHER THAN HETEROSEXUALS
Even gay activists would agree on this (though for different reasons). But anyway, in a 2023 study, Chum et al reported that "gay/lesbian and bisexual individuals to be at elevated risk of suicide-related behavior events".
12) HOMOSEXUALITY IS THREE TIMES MORE FATAL THAN SMOKING OR OBESITY
Whitlock summarised a 2009 study by Whitlock et al, that "moderate obesity, which is now common, reduces life expectancy by about 3 years, and that severe obesity, which is still uncommon, can shorten a person’s life by 10 years. This 10 year loss is equal to the effects of lifelong smoking."
If you use the 20 years of life lost due to homosexuality number above, then homosexuality would be twice as "fatal" as smoking or severe obesity.
Conclusion
So in summary, there're sources for basically all of the claims in this long memes, and most of them are pretty legit.
