IT’S YOUR MONEY
Feds Spend $1.5 Million to Study
Why Lesbians Are Fat
March 11, 2013
The NIH is funding studies to determine why nearly three-quarters of adult lesbians are overweight or obese, compared to half of heterosexual women. (AP Photo)
(CNSNews.com) – The National Institutes of Health (NIH) has awarded $1.5 million to study biological and social factors for why “three-quarters” of lesbians are obese and why gay males are not, calling it an issue of “high public-health significance.”
Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, Mass., has received two grants administered by NIH’s Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development (NICHD) to study the relationship between sexual orientation and obesity.
“Obesity is one of the most critical public health issues affecting the U.S. today,” the description of the grant reads. “Racial and socioeconomic disparities in the determinants, distribution, and consequences of obesity are receiving increasing attention.”
“[H]owever, one area that is only beginning to be recognized is the striking interplay of gender and sexual orientation in obesity disparities,” it states. “It is now well-established that women of minority sexual orientation are disproportionately affected by the obesity epidemic, with it continues.
“In stark contrast, among men, heterosexual males have nearly double the risk of obesity compared to gay males.”
The investigators say there has been “almost no” research devoted to this disparity, and they have set out to find the biological, psychological, and social factors behind it.
The project is being led by S. Bryn Austin, Director of Fellowship Research Training in the Division of Adolescent and Young Adult Medicine at Boston Children’s Hospital. Austin is also an Associate Professor in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences at the Harvard School of Public Health, and an Associate Epidemiologist at Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH), which is a teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School.
BWH first received a $778,622 grant for the study in 2011, followed by a $741,378 grant in 2012, totaling $1,520,000. The project has the potential to be a five-year study.
The grants list a “project end date” and a “budget end date” of June 30, 2016. The researchers said the subject is one of “high public-health significance.”
“It will be impossible to develop evidence-based preventive interventions unless we first answer basic questions about causal pathways, as we plan to do,” they said. “Our study has high potential for public health impact not only for sexual minorities but also for heterosexuals, as we seek to uncover how processes of gender socialization may exacerbate obesity risk in both sexual minority females and heterosexual males.”
Inquiries to the NIHCD and S. Bryn Austin were not returned by publication of this story.
The project is being led by S. Bryn Austin, Director of Fellowship Research Training in the Division of Adolescent and Young Adult Medicine at Boston Children’s Hospital. Austin is also an Associate Professor in the Department of Social and Behavioral Sciences at the Harvard School of Public Health, and an Associate Epidemiologist at Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH), which is a teaching hospital of Harvard Medical School.
BWH first received a $778,622 grant for the study in 2011, followed by a $741,378 grant in 2012, totaling $1,520,000. The project has the potential to be a five-year study.
The grants list a “project end date” and a “budget end date” of June 30, 2016. The researchers said the subject is one of “high public-health significance.”
“It will be impossible to develop evidence-based preventive interventions unless we first answer basic questions about causal pathways, as we plan to do,” they said. “Our study has high potential for public health impact not only for sexual minorities but also for heterosexuals, as we seek to uncover how processes of gender socialization may exacerbate obesity risk in both sexual minority females and heterosexual males.”
Inquiries to the NIHCD and S. Bryn Austin were not returned by publication of this story.
Help... I'm being oppressed!
ReplyDeletebtw -Gay females all WANT. to be pregnant... but only their FATHERS. will do for baby daddy.
ReplyDeletewonderful observation. Think of it this way – bullets kill people, and spoons make them Far!
ReplyDeleteHow about they are fat because they do not eat healthy foods?
ReplyDeleteWe need to spend taxpayers dollars researching why anyone is fat? Gimme a break!
Woman around and after menopause typically gain weight. Something to do with estrogen levels going down, I think.
ReplyDeleteWill lesbians want to take estrogen? It might interfere with their "sexual orientation"? Can't have that, you know!
Darth Bacon said...
ReplyDelete"wonderful observation. Think of it this way – bullets kill people, and spoons make them Fat"
Rosie O'Donnell emphazised her prowess of being an ignorant socialist on a recent show where she attacked Tom Selleck, one of the nicest guys in show business, for being a proponent of the NRA. She displayed her moral vanity by insinuating that he condoned the massacre of innocent people at Columbine. She used biased and incorrect facts about Columbine to try to belittle him all the while showcasing her hypocritical, democratic/liberal views.
http://www.angelfire.com/tx5/vdub/pics/rosie2.jpg
Our country is already becoming a festering scab of PROGRESSIVE fascism with these annoying, loud, obnoxious, political Fat, ugly, pathetic, disgusting, correctness and ambiguous sexual harassment standards with these lesbian dictators . The way I see it, the only way to save our country from these liberal/progressive hippies is to banish idiots like Rosie O'Donnell to live in Libya and then nuke that wasteland once and for all.
Rosie O’Donnell is as annoying as Michelle Obama
I think the hope is that this research reveal something about obesity in the wider population.
ReplyDeleteAlways On Watch said...
ReplyDeleteHow about they are fat because they do not eat healthy foods?
Do you mean that they don't listen to Our First Lady?
Wehrwolfen,
ReplyDeleteApparently.
I myself have reservations about diets so heavy in carbohydrates and whole grains. If one can exercise vigorously, one can offset those elements of the eating program that Michelle Obama advocates. If, like me, one is disabled to the point that vigorous exercise is impossible, then a different eating program should be implemented, IMO.
Most federal bureaucrats lead quite sedentary lives and do not exercise -- or even do their own household chores.
Why wouldn't a study of obesity be a reasonable project for NIH?
ReplyDeleteOr do you just object to the subjects involved?
People get fat, because they EAT too much.
ReplyDeletePeople are also genetically pre-determined to develop into one of three basic somatic types -- Ectomorph -- Mesomorph --Endomorph.
There ain't a whole helluva lot anyone can do about it. Anymore than we can change being short, tall, blue-eyed or brown-eyed, etc.
No taxpayer-funded government "studies" are needed -- only the application of good, old-fashioned common sense.
Sick to death of endless quibbling about -- and unneeded "investigation" of -- non-issues.
ReplyDeleteFT,
ReplyDeleteThe body types you mentioned are indeed major factors in the Battle against Excess Pounds.
If the population were, in the space of a single generation, to get taller or change eye colour to the same extent, it would be just as worthy of our patience and curiosity as obesity is.
ReplyDeleteWhat makes a large fraction of the population suddenly start eating too much? Once you get past tautology it becomes an interesting question.
Even if you don't find human behavior interesting interesting enough on its own merits, there's still a large amount of money at stake so there's no way you can meaningfully call it a non-issue.
Hmmm. I wonder why so many Roman citizens were fat.... and why so many Bengladeshi's skinny? Not.
ReplyDeleteDennis Prager had some expert on this morning who's a shrink, I think...she was saying that straight women LOVE to cook for their man/their love...and that gay women are no different, but now you have TWO women lovin' to cook for their partner...
ReplyDeletewho knows? maybe that's part of it?
Ducky made me laugh out loud.
So now that we're questioning a study specifically highlighting lesbians and their weight, we're not for studying obesity!? :-) There's a stretch!!!
I have no problem with the federal gov't spending some money on studing obesity, though I believe it's stupid because OVER EATING causes obesity (SURPRISE)...
BUt..this is just silly. Most Lesbians would probably agree. REpublican lesbians would because they'd be smart enough to realize America's BROKE and this isn't a priority study. Or shouldn't be!
btw -Gay females all WANT. to be pregnant... but only their FATHERS. will do for baby daddy.
ReplyDeleteWow! Does Big Dick Cheney know about this?
So much to learn everytime I come here.
What an excellent and inspiring blog post this was TY thank you
ReplyDeleteI'm still trying to figure out what Hillary Clinton would do under these circumstances. And perhaps she would also know first hand why lesbians are always so angry!
Why don't we get Shaw to answer these questions, after all she would know first hand.I don't get along with lesbians at all. They don't like me, and I don't like them.
So much to learn everytime I come here.
ReplyDeleteAlways happy to lend clues to the clueless. :)
Are you sure you really know any, Daniel? You might be surprised if you did. Things are seldom what they seem.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteThersites, Ms Shaw is hardly "clueless," she just has a different worldview.
ReplyDeleteIt's as though you were living on the east side of a great mountain range, and honestly believed that what you see each day is all there is that's worth seeing, while she lives on the western side of that same mountain range and doubtless feels the same way you do about her surroundings.
All of us tend to like the trappings of "home" better than anything else.
It's perfectly natural, but it is, of course, a limited, parochial view of Reality.
Imperfect analogy, I know, but there's much truth in it, nonetheless.
Ms Shaw,
ReplyDeleteThere really IS always a great to deal to be learned here. I can't help it if so few bother to avail themselves of it.
At the very least we provide a Showcase for Human Nature at its best and worst. The items posted here are of secondary importance to the way readers interpret and comment on them.
This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteMy undying, unquenchable hope is to see respondents explain their own views with honesty and sincerity, ask intelligent questions politely, and not indulge in making moronic catcalls, or virulent castigation, denunciation and condemnation of one another.
ReplyDeleteCall it an opportunity to exercise and develop better etiquette and a chance to sharpen our perceptions.
Nietzche said something to this effect: Beware of those who are overly eager to punish. [I'm sure Thersites or FJ could provide us with Nietzche's exact words]
I would broaden that statement:
Beware of those who are eager to scold, denounce, chastise, castigate and condemn -- or even let themselves often think ill of -- fellow human beings.
If it is true that we tend to find whatever we earnestly seek, it well behooves us to look for the good in one another.
FYI: I am deleting what-I-deem-to-be gratuitous insults, and unduly repetitive remarks. Such taunts and jibes show no desire to develop better understanding or to build bridges over the chasms of limited perceptions that keep us divided and forever at odds.
ReplyDeleteEveryone needs to vent his spleen periodically, but this modest little place is not going to be used merely as a basin for bile if I can help it.
Educate yourselves on the "symptoms" associated with father hunger.
ReplyDelete...or Hunt the Snark. It matters NOT to me.
ReplyDelete“ ‘You may seek it with thimbles — and seek it with care;
You may hunt it with forks and hope;
You may threaten its life with a railway-share;
You may charm it with smiles and soap —’ ”
(“That’s exactly the method,” the Bellman bold
In a hasty parenthesis cried,
“That’s exactly the way I have always been told
That the capture of Snarks should be tried!”)
-Lewis Carroll, "The Hunting of the Snark"
aka - sinthomes derivative of the symbolic order.
ReplyDeleteFT: "At the very least we provide a Showcase for Human Nature at its best and worst."
ReplyDeleteYes, it is true. As for the commenters who come here and try to disrupt your Showcase for Human Nature:
"illegitimi non carborundum"
ReplyDeleteREPUBLICANS
A poem
R describes their policies: “Retarded.”
E is for the Enrons that they spawn.
P is for their Pork and Profiteering,
U and I must pay for, even once they’re gone.
B is for the Bankruptcies and Bullshit,
L is for the Lies they smile and tell.
I is for Innocents they slaughter,
C, their missing Conscience… “Ain’t war Hell?”
A is ‘cuz they’re Assholes, pure and simple,
N is for the Nightmares they unfurl.
S means there’s a bunch of them in power,
Sowing Shame and Sorrow in this world.
Put them all together and it spells REPUBLICANS.
Now lets speak about September the 11th.
They say its some terrorist,
some barbaric bunch of Arabs,
from Saudi Arabia, or from Afghanistan
And that is it wasn't our American terrorists
It wasn't the Klan or the Skin heads
Or the them that blows up nigger
Churches, or reincarnates us on Death Row
It wasn't Trent Lott
Or David Duke or Giuliani
Or Schundler, Helms retiring
It wasn't
The gonorrhea in costume
The white sheet diseases
That have murdered black people
Terrorized reason and sanity
Most of humanity, as they pleases
They say (who say?)
Who do the saying
Who is them paying
Who tell the lies
Who in disguise
Who had the slaves
Who got the bux out the Bucks
Who got fat from plantations
Who genocided Indians
Tried to waste the Black nation
Who live on Wall Street
The first plantation
Who cut your nuts off
Who rape your ma
Who lynched your pa
Who got the tar, who got the feathers
Who had the match, who set the fires
Who killed and hired
Who say they God & still be the Devil.
Roses are red, violets are blue.
Bush is a lying SOB.
And Cheney is too.
Why do I hate Republicans? Yes, I DO hate Republicans. I loathe them. I hate people who support them (although I temper that with a 5% exception rate).
ReplyDeleteRepublicans ARE fascists. They deny it and they'll even call liberals fascists (they love attempting to redefine words that describe them in an unflattering way). Not sure where this list originally appeared but you can Google it and find it in any of a number of locations.
Right now you are probably thinking any of a number of things. I've hear it all over the years. I'll toss out the "just another internut" and the like as not worth considering. Random thoughts also as I'd never fathom them all and really don't care to try. Somewhere in it all there will be those thinking I'm just an ignorant liberal asshole. Others will be waiting, maybe eagerly, for my explanation. Others will already be agreeing with me. I think my reasons are sound and understandable, even reasonable.
Liberals and those on the "left" have put up with attacks, verbal and even physical, from the right for years, decades even.,
Criminal Republicans won't stop and they won't compromise. The fact they will not compromise makes them incompatible with American life as we have come to know it.
The Republican party is edging closer and closer to the Nazi party of 1940s Germany. Many on the Left are waking up. A generation has grown under the tender tutelage of Rush Limbaugh and Bill O'Reilly and their imitators who foment stochastic terrorism against whatever target they name on their Hate-filled programs.
People like Rush Limbaugh, Bill O'Reilly, Glen Beck, Micheal Savage and their imitators have made careers out of demonizing and verbally abusing their opponents for a generation. They make money at it. They won't stop.
Eventually even the nicest most polite person gets tired of the abuse.
The people on the right, those who have thoroughly enjoyed the actions of their Hateful radio heroes, and have benefited from their activities financially and emotional, are noticing that us liberals are fighting back and they are crying "UNFAIR!" and "WHAT''S WRONG WITH THE LEFT???". I find this hilarious.
Hey Righties, YOU made people like ME. Aren't you happy with your work?
I love people who can justify their ass-holery and violation of their own ideals on the basis of their fundamental ideology.
ReplyDeleteThere's a word for it.... oh, yeah. "Pervert." :)
Age quod agis!
ReplyDelete
ReplyDeleteAs they say, Elections DO have consequences, but in a GOPer's mind, only when they win the presidency.
We can once again look forward to being entertained by you stupid Republicans in the next election.
I can hardly wait until we find out what nut-job Repub will be the next crop of pig-ignorant candidate’s to become the world laughing stock.
The reason the GOP lost was because they live in a hermetically sealed bubble of "dumb" through which facts cannot penetrate. Instead of real-world information, they subsist on a steady diet of horsedung served up by the chefs at FOX and hysterical AM radio cranks. The election of Obama was never in doubt to anyone outside the bubble. Never. Teabaggers were jolted ONLY because they had been shielded from real polls and told to only look at the absurd 7+ Gallup tracking poll and listen to Dick Morris's rosey prediction of a Romney landslide. Now they're convinced there was some evil conspiracies afoot.
The ONE thing I love about this blog and it’s author is seeing another Republican throw a tantrum because they lost. You are all a an excellent example of why the GOP is doomed and deserves to be.
Still trying to think of a rational argument to offer, eh, Thersites ? Maybe you'll have better luck over at Z's blog.
Time hath, my lord, a wallet at his back,
ReplyDeleteWherein he puts alms for oblivion,
A great-sized monster of ingratitudes:
Those scraps are good deeds past; which are devour’d
As fast as they are made, forgot as soon
As done: perseverance, dear my lord,
Keeps honour bright: to have done is to hang
Quite out of fashion, like a rusty mail
In monumental mockery. /…/ O, let not virtue seek
Remuneration for the thing it was; for beauty, wit,
High birth, vigour of bone, desert in service,
Love, friendship, charity, are subjects all
To envious and calumniating time.
- Shakespeare, "Troilus and Cressida"
This is to point out the hypocrisy of the Republican Party..
ReplyDeleteThe meaning of Ignorance: There are probably a few people out there with no information whatsoever, because they really do not read, watch any news at all, or listen to anything on the radio besides Rock and Roll or Country (Hillbilly) music. The greatest number in this category, however, are the sadly deluded who think they do know the real story, because they get their information from Fox News, Rush and the rest of the Koch brothers’ minions. They have never looked at any rational set of facts (and they don’t want to). The classic “low-information” voter who makes a choice based on who they’d like to have a beer with.
The meaning of Stupidity: This group really bothers me. I’m sad to say I have acquaintances, really, I can’t call them friends, because my relationship with them is limited to what I read on their blogs. And those who do read and get their information from several sources, most of which is from political psychopathic radio talk shows,
and just plain refuse to acknowledge the truth, even when it hits them in the face like a dead mackerel. When the facts are placed right in front of you and you choose to ignore them – well, that’s just plain stupid. It’s lottery ticket thinking. It’s magical thinking. It’s thinking that somehow the rich guys are going to create millions of jobs instead of enriching themselves. It’s thinking that you might become one of those rich guys! Does the name Sarah Palin come to mind?
The meaning of Greed: Well, there are plenty of those in my town. I live in a beautiful little beach town on the Outer Banks. There are many here who have had successful careers (or were lucky enough to buy when this was just a sandbar with a gravel road). The average home price is over a million dollars (not mine). And a percentage of these lucky, lucky people just don’t want to share their good fortune with anyone else. They want to keep it all. And they will vote for someone who promises to let them hang on to more.
The meaning of Evil: I’d like to think this is a tiny percentage, but no, it’s a lot more than that. . These are the bullies, sociopaths and creeps. It’s not enough for them to have it all to themselves – they actually enjoy the idea of other people suffering. I’d include all of the homophobic, racist, women-hating assholes in this group. I suppose there is some very slight comfort in knowing that these people will never experience true joy, or love, or kindness. And when they die, no one will shed any tears
So, of the people you know who are voting Republican, which category is the largest? All of the above? Yes siree bob, you got it, they are ALL of the above, it’s safe to saythe GOP is the Party of Choice for Sociopaths and Psychopaths. How can a party with such a ridiculous cast of characters have such a massive following? Did Bill Maher hit the nail on the head when he said that ALL Republicans were stupid?
You REALLY need to have a pot meets kettle moment, anon.
ReplyDeleteI see that the Lib's are having a field day here today at the expense of the Republican Party.
ReplyDeleteLet me assure you people, (and I use the world "People" loosely)
In regards to the Republican Party's alleged death made mostly by Leftists in the Media - I would say if I were Mr. Republican - Reports of my death have been greatly exaggerated.
It's much, much too soon to bury the Republican party, the Obama Presidency has a long way to go, and before his administration is over, I think that the bulk of this country will wake up and smell the Socialist. Obama is the worse president in all American history. The Democrats should be ashamed for what they have done to this country.
The scary thing is the we still have another 3yrs and 10 months to have to put up with this imbecile. I shudder to think of what this country will be at the end of that time.
Thanks to those who made comments containing wit, demonstrating knowledge, insight, sincerity and evidence of actual thought.
ReplyDeleteYou know who you are -- I hope ;-) -- and may God bless you -- whether you believe in Him or not.
I extend my condolences to the many from both the liberal and conservative camps who chose to spew bile in a spirit of ill will or mischief. They are not doing me any harm, but they are consuming themselves very foolishly with spite, anguish and envy.
You know who you are too. No one needs to resort to finger-pointing.
You've made a sorry spectacle of yourselves.
I know this is way, way after the fact, but I just have to say DITTO, and what you say is true. The liberal or as a certain person on the far left calls herself “progressive” thinks that being so very open-minded and tolerant of differences, and loves belittle each and every republican that dares to comment on her blog. These people are not the Americans of old, not the heroes who went over-seas and risked their lives for their fellow countrymen. –They're cowards who fear and try to squash any threat to their power over people's emotions. And they're certainly not bold nonconformists. You want to see a bold nonconformist? I'll show you a religious, conservative, a republican who practices what he or she preaches, and who is damn good at it. A conservative, or a republican who is proud to be one. This is reminiscent of a fellow Vietnam war Veteran
ReplyDeleteWho joined to fight for God and Country. He was brave and strong, a true American,
Who fought so that the Homeland could be free, Who came home to a country that told him he wasted his time and risked his life for nothing.
When Barack Obama nominated John Kerry to be America’s next Secretary of State , he called Kerry the “perfect choice” to replace Hillary Clinton. Perfect in what way?
John Kerry’s record shows us that not only has John Kerry been on the wrong side of every major foreign policy issue for most of his adult life, including Iraq, Nicaragua and most recently in Syria, but he has engaged in deception to conceal his true identity more than once. What’s worse, Kerry has a clear record of giving aid and comfort to America’s enemies, all the while never missing an opportunity to viciously trash our brave forces fighting against them. what a hero! Just like the Iraqi war resolution. "He voted for it before he voted against it." That says it all.
Much like his buddy Jane Fonda. Yes, and this same John Kerry who has been picked to serve as Secretary of State for the same nation he trashed. Picked by that other socialist Barack Hussain Obama. When one is an anti-American POTUS seeking its destruction, then picking Kerry and Hagel are splendid choices. Fact: John Kerry sucks, Barrack Obama sucks, Hagel sucks, the whole administration sucks. They all turn my stomach. So sit back my friends and watch as the glorious USA withers away through self-destructive stupidity and leadership that would make even a kindergarten child scratch its head in confusion.
As a Vet myself, I haven't met a fellow Vet yet that thought Kerry was worth spit!
Much of what you say may be true, Old Vet, but not all of it by any means. The peevish, boilerplate insults, half-truths and stale talking points from the left have long been equalled by a similar approach from the right.
ReplyDeleteALL of this mindless lobbing of verbal grenades from behind the barricades is NOT GETTING us ANYWHERE we NEED to GO.
Insulting those who don't believe what we believe is not productive.
All it really means is that "we" have let "them" get "our" goat.
Where's the good in THAT?
For the record, here is a photo of two lesbians that will probably get all those red-blooded GOP guys', ahem, hackles up when they see it. Not all lesbians are overweight.
ReplyDeleteHere are the lesbians.
And here is a lovely hetero Republican woman.
Wow...there really are "exceptions" to rules. Thanks for sharing your progressive insight! They must teach that in college.
ReplyDeleteFJ, why yes, "they" do.
ReplyDeleteAnd I'm happy to have enlightened you on this.
As Ducky says, we liberals are here to help people like you live a life of the mind.
...thanks! Without your help, we'd probably have solved all the world's problems already. :)
ReplyDeleteShaw Kenawe, that you ever SOOO much for helping us stupid uninformed Conservatives to understand, I don't know what we would do without you!
ReplyDeletePerhaps, be happier?
By the way, I just visited your blog and I thought that smelled worse than rotting fish!
47 comments!
ReplyDeleteOf course, all this discussion had to proceed while I was in the midst of my work week. **sigh**
99.44% of the discussion was totally worthhless, AW.
ReplyDeleteYou didn't miss a thing, except further proof of the futility of blogging.. ;-)
The result, I suppose, of pupils having long ago been turned into pooh piles. };-)>
ReplyDelete