smoking healthier than homosexuality?

Justina reports that the head of the Australian Christian Lobby, Jim Wallace, has caused a stir by telling students at the University of Tasmania this week that smoking is healthier than living a homosexual lifestyle, at least for men, and that smokers deserve a big apology for being unfairly demonised.

“The claim was made during a debate on same-sex marriage with Greens leader, Christine Milne,” says Justina, “and while Wallace's comments may not prevent Tasmania from becoming the first Australian state to legalise gay marriage he does shed some much needed light on dodgy official health statistics claiming that smokers have the worst health outcomes than any other community group and as such deserve to be taxed exorbitantly for their vice.”

“Wallace presented the gay community's own health statistics showing that gays have a higher rate of illicit drug taking, mental health problems suicide and shorter lives than any other community group - ostensibly because of discrimination – and because of this deserve to be given exorbitant sums of money from the public purse.”

“Bearing in mind that smokers receive far more discrimination than gays  – and it’s officially sanctioned, too,” says Justina, “it does seem ridiculous that smokers are taxed for self-medicating themselves and yet gays claim health funding for illicit drug taking!”

“The most vocal critic of Wallace's comments so far is Australian Marriage Equality national convener, Alex Greenwich, who called on Prime Minister Julia Gillard to boycott the Christian Lobby 's national conference next month – but a spokesperson for the PM claimed that her attendance at the event would not be an endorsement of such comments.”

"Greenwich claimed that the Christian Lobby was basing its campaign against gay marriage on fear rather than facts and was hurting vulnerable gay people," says Justina, "and yet that’s the same argument smokers have been using for decades against those in government hell bent on demonising them – but fat lot of good it did them – the more they were stressed and denormalised, the more they smoked and the more tobacco tax they paid!”

“Wallace concluded the debate by claiming that further normalising homosexuality with the attribution of marriage is wrong because it encourages young men into a lifestyle that may reduce their lives by up to 20 years,'' says Justina, “and his clincher was a comparison with smokers whose lives may be reduced by seven to 10 years.”

“We tell all our kids at school they shouldn't smoke, and yet encourage them to embrace the homosexual lifestyle!”

See also:

smokers should read gay pride book


smokers pay unfair health risk penalties

New York Gays Win, Smokers Lose

Justina wonders whether there’s a relationship between New York legislating for gay marriage at the same time as banning smoking in New York's parks.

“Don’t get me wrong, I support gay rights,” says Justina, “yet it seems to me that every right gays have won has been at the expense of smokers’ rights and I’m wondering whether the gay lobby has been working against smokers behind the scenes in order win approval for their agenda, or whether the narks out there need someone else to hate now that it is illegal to vilify gays.”

“Every objection once applied to homosexuality now seems to be leveled at smokers – it’s dirty, it’s unnatural, it causes horrible diseases, it’s anti-social etc.,” explains Justina, “and terms once the domain of gays now apply to smokers - we’ve become ‘closet’ smokers, people love ‘outing’ us, we are forced to smoke in lavatories and bushes in case someone catches us, and the accoutrements of our vice are now hidden under counters, requested in shameful, hushed tones, and sold to us with a sense of disgust by salespeople.”

“Sure, smoking is dirty, unnatural, anti-social and causes horrible diseases,” admits Justina, “but homosexuality is all of those things, too, and yet nobody dares say so to a gay person any more – and good thing too – but why is it now OK to vilify smokers in the same way that gays once were?”

“I actually heard some crazy woman say that she is deliberately exposing her young sons to homosexual material in order to help them through adolescence – just in case they may be that way inclined,” says Justina. “Hello? Can you imagine her exposing her young sons to smoking material in the same manner, for the same reason?”

“It is all very well to support gay rights and let them marry, kiss and cuddle in public and do whatever they want to do within the privacy of their homes and clubs,” says Justina, “but it is quite another thing to shove the gay lifestyle into our faces at the same time as vilifying the smoking lifestyle.”

“And this is where New York is wrong.”

“If the good burghers of that city are prepared to allow gays to marry, then why are they being so illiberal in relation to smokers?” asks Justina. “Why the ban on smoking in parks?”
“It has nothing to do with public health,” says Justina. “It is purely because some people just don’t want to be exposed to other people doing something enjoyable and perfectly legal in the open air that they, themselves, don’t do.”

“If we can’t smoke in the parks, guys, where can we smoke?”


Read Justina's other thoughts on this issue:

smokers should read gay pride book