I'm quite surprised this thread is still limping on.

GfS et al - the most that can be concluded about people who have had sex with the same and with opposite genders is that they are bisexual. Men are - famoudly - just sexual. The straightest of the straight is quite happy to get a bit from one of the lads when they're all in prison together, so sexualty is hardly a fixed reference.

The real issue is why do people like Ake and GfS have such a hang up about what other people do with their sexual organs. I just find it very odd and a little disturbing.

If Ake reckons that early death and/or HIV infection is a "gay thing" then he should pop off to Africa where 22.4mn people have HIV and where it is overwhelmingly a heterosexual disease - in Swaziland for instance the HIV infection rate is about 25% of the overall population.

In USA and Western Europe, that HIV is mostly a "gay thing" is now a footnote in history as the new UK infection rate by heterosexual transfer has been approaching and exceeding the homosexual transfer rate for a long time now - as at August 2009 the male/male new infections were only at 44% - source, UK Health Protection Agency.

Because "straight" people are in such denial about their risky behaviours they are less likely to get tested and treated and the prevailing view amongst health agencies is that the heterosexual figures are the tip of an enormous iceberg.

Add to that the well-documented tidal wave of heterosexually acquired STI's amongst straight teenagers in the UK, and the only statistical conclusion is that heterosexual communities are paying the greatest price for their loose morals and grotesque sexual hygiene.

Anecdotally, there is a view that gay people are at greater risk of mental health and depression problems leading to physical ill health, but surely that is just because of the vile treatment they get from the likes of sexually insecure bigots like Ake and GfS?