One cigarette can kill you; so can one act of gay sex

By Bryan Fischer

The newest surgeon general's report on cigarette smoking says the first cigarette you smoke can be the one that kills you.

The report says that there are more than 7,000 chemicals in each puff that can cause cellular damage in nearly every organ, and that tobacco smoke immediately begins poisoning the human body.

"That one puff on that cigarette could be the one that causes your heart attack," said Surgeon General Regina Benjamin.

As long as we're on the subject of health, what the surgeon general did not say but should have is that the same is true of homosexual behavior: the first act of gay sex can be the one that kills you.

While drugs have been found to mitigate the damage done by HIV, there is no cure. Once someone contracts it, he has it for life, a life often tragically shortened by between eight and 20 years, according to the International Journal of Epidemiology.

Smoking will cut six to seven years from the lifespan of the smoker, meaning a cigarette habit is less dangerous to human health and longevity than gay sex.

According to the Associated Press, "[T]here is no safe level of exposure to cigarette smoke." Same goes for participation in gay sex — there is simply "no safe level of exposure."

The surgeon general's office has now issued 30 — count 'em, 30 — reports warning the American public of the dangers of smoking. To my knowledge, surgeons general have issued exactly zero reports warning Americans of the dangers of gay sex and urging restraint.

The bad news about cigarette smoking is prompting calls for the banning of cigarettes altogether.

Says nicotine expert Dr. K. Michael Cummings of the Roswell Park Cancer Institute, "How many reports more does Congress need to have to say that cigarettes as a class of products ought to be banned?"

Whoa. Here's a medical expert calling for cigarette smoking to be made illegal because of its risk to human health.

If a case can be made that cigarette smoking should be made illegal, a far better case can be made for making homosexual sex contrary to public policy, as it was in every state in the Union until 1962, and in 49 states until 1972. It's still against the law in 12 states, although the Supreme Court, in another egregious act of judicial activism, prohibited states from governing themselves in this matter in the Lawrence ruling of 2003.

Now the surgeon general knows she can't make it illegal in the current political climate, so she'll settle for a vigorous effort to reduce the practice by sending a clear-cut, unambiguous message about smoking as a behavior. If you don't smoke, don't start. If you have started, stop.

Here's an idea: since gay sex is more dangerous to human health than cigarette smoking, let's make sure our public policies on both are the same.

I will be content at this juncture in American history for our public policy on homosexual conduct to be the same as our public policy on cigarette smoking, and for the same reason: the hazard they pose to public health.

The goal of the surgeon general's office, since it can't make smoking illegal, is to reduce the smoking rate from its current 20 percent to 12 percent by 2020.

We currently have between two and four percent of the population engaging in gay sex. How about we ask the surgeon general to launch a crusade to reduce the gay sex rate from four percent to one percent by 2020?

Says the surgeon general, in words that can and should be addressed to practicing homosexuals, "It's never too late to quit but the sooner you quit the better."

In other words, the official administration policy on cigarette smoking is abstinence. Let's make it the official government position on gay sex.

(Unless otherwise noted, the opinions expressed are the author's and do not necessarily reflect the views of the American Family Association or American Family Radio.)

© Bryan Fischer