Saturday, March 13, 2010

Which is Worse: Smoking or Being Gay?

Iowa Family Policy Center President Chuck Hurley argues being gay is worse for Iowa than smoking. Here's part of a statement he sent out:

"The Iowa Legislature outlawed smoking in an effort to improve health and reduce the medical costs that are often passed on to the state,” said Chuck Hurley, president of the group. “The secondhand impacts of certain homosexual acts are arguably more destructive, and potentially more costly to society than smoking.”
Hurley's anti-gay stance has apparently inspired/provoked someone to start a website against him. It's up today at www.chuckhurls.com. There's also an anti-Hurley Facebook page now called "Chuck Hurley Makes Me Hurl".

What do you think? Who causes more problems for Iowa: gays or smokers? What about gay smokers?

Governor Chet Culver is playing no favorites on Twitter today during this election season. Here's what is posted on his account:

Going to the 3A and 4A boys basketball finals with my kids, John and Clare. Good luck to Pella, SC Heelan, Ames and SE Polk! - Chet
Pella and Heelan go at it in the 3A finals Saturday night. Ames and SE Polk title up in 4A.

7 comments:

Mike Demastus said...

Fact is...Chuck Hurley is absolutely correct. Living a homosexual lifestyle means you are more likely to die younger than an avid smoker will. Bashing Chuck personally doesn't change the facts.

Greg Kilberger said...

and what "facts" are you basing this on? And what exactly are the "second-hand" effects of being gay?

Anonymous said...

Check out www.secondhandeffects.com

Iowa Family Policy Center ACTION said...

According to the CDC, smoking increases your chance of lung cancer by 10 to 20% (http://www.cdc.gov/cancer/lung/basic_info/risk_factors.htm)

The CDC also says that male homosexuals increase their risk of contracting HIV by 44% over men who don't have sex with men. (http://www.cdc.gov/nchhstp/Newsroom/msmpressrelease.html)

The facts speak for themselves. Neither one is healthy, but it is more dangerous for a man to engage in homosexual acts than it is for him to become a smoker.

Anonymous said...

it's ten to twenty times...not percent. that's 1000 to 2000 percent. that's way more than you're HIV stats.

and it's not facts that speak for themselves, it's your ridiculous rhetoric that is plain wrong. try thinking instead of being hateful.

Iowa Family Policy Center ACTION said...

You are correct, the reports use the word "times" rather than percent.

From the CDC report on smoking: "People who smoke are 10 to 20 times more likely to get lung cancer or die from lung cancer than people who do not smoke."

From the CDC report on men who have sex with men: "the rate of new HIV diagnoses among men who have sex with men (MSM) is more than 44 times that of other men and more than 40 times that of women."

Anonymous said...

Cancer doesn`t spread, hiv does.