The position of social conservatives regarding homosexuality is based on the conviction that homosexual conduct is objectively harmful.  The most obvious evidence of this is the negative physical health consequences which can result directly from homosexual acts, and the most dramatic of those negative consequences is the highly elevated risk of HIV infection and AIDS among men who have sex with men (MSM).  Of all the Americans who have died of AIDS since the epidemic began nearly three decades ago, more than a quarter million of them have been men whose only known risk factor was that they had sex with other men.[i]  Researchers recently calculated that homosexual men are approximately fifty times more likely to be HIV-positive than heterosexual men.[ii]  And the reason is no mystery – the practice of anal intercourse is more likely to transmit the virus,[iii] and the tendency of homosexual men to have multiple sex partners[iv] is more effective at spreading it.

However, HIV/AIDS is not the only sexually transmitted disease for which homosexual men are at risk.  The CDC warns, “Men who have sex with men (MSM) are at elevated risk for certain sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), including Hepatitis A, Hepatitis B, HIV/AIDS, syphilis, gonorrhea, and chlamydia.”[v]

Although not as dramatic, problems with sexually transmitted disease are also found among lesbians.  In 2007, a medical journal reported, “Women who identified as lesbians have a 2.5-fold increased likelihood of BV [bacterial vaginosis] compared with heterosexual women.”[vi]  The Gay and Lesbian Medical Association also reports, “Lesbians have higher risks for many of the gynecologic cancers.”[vii]

While those who suffer these illnesses are obviously the primary victims, such health problems impose a cost upon society as well.  Billions of dollars have been spent treating such illnesses, as well as in searching for cures and operating prevention programs, and in many cases the money must come from taxpayers and all who pay insurance premiums.  Such expenditures are necessary to meet the immediate need – but they could also have been avoided had people abstained from the behavior which leads to such illnesses.  This is a large part of what social conservatives mean when they argue that “homosexual behavior is harmful to society.”

Mental Health Problems Associated with Same-Sex Attractions and Homosexual Conduct

In addition to suffering higher rates of physical illness, evidence shows that homosexuals experience higher levels of mental illness as well.  This fact is also not in dispute.  For example, the Southern Poverty Law Center, in its article “10 Anti-Gay Myths Debunked,” says one such “myth” is, “Homosexuals are more prone to be mentally ill and to abuse drugs and alcohol.”  Yet in their own explanation of “the facts,” they declare, “It is true that LGBT people suffer higher rates of anxiety, depression, and depression-related illnesses and behaviors like alcohol and drug abuse than the general population.”[viii]

The real debate is not over whether these problems exist, but over their cause.  Whereas many of the physical health problems experienced by homosexuals are a direct result of their sexual conduct, it is much more difficult to identify direct causation in the case of mental illnesses.  Social conservatives understand that correlation is not causation, and it is not clear whether homosexual conduct might lead to mental illness, mental illness might lead to same-sex attraction and/or homosexual conduct, or whether some independent factor or factors are also at work.  Even if one accepts the declaration by the American Psychiatric Association in 1973 that homosexuality is not in itself a mental illness, there is no question that there is a correlation between homosexuality and higher rates of mental illness.  The nature of and reasons for that correlation are likely highly complex, and are in any case legitimate subjects for research and debate.

Those who believe in the “gay identity” paradigm, however, offer a single, simplistic answer for the higher rates of mental illness among homosexuals – they claim that societal discrimination is the cause.  While this claim has theoretical appeal, it cannot merely be accepted as an article of faith – it must be empirically verified.  For example, if mental health problems among homosexuals were caused by discrimination, one would expect that they would much more severe in places with higher levels of “discrimination,” and much less severe in places where homosexuals are widely accepted.  Yet this is not what the research shows.  For example, even in the Netherlands – perhaps the most “gay-friendly” country in the world – a study showed “a higher prevalence of substance use disorders in homosexual women and a higher prevalence of mood and anxiety disorders in homosexual men.”[ix]  Another recent study found that even in areas with a more “supportive social environment,” teenagers who self-identified as “gay” were five times more likely to attempt suicide than heterosexual teens.[x]