The study, which was published in the International Journal of Epidemiology, followed 6.5 million Danish adults between 1982 and 2011.

“Our study expands on century-old knowledge that married people generally have lower mortality than unmarried and divorced persons,” wrote the report’s lead author, Dr. Morten Frisch, a Professor of Epidemiology at Aalborg University. “From a public health viewpoint, it is important to try and identify those underlying factors and mechanisms.”

Since 1989, same-sex unions have been legal in Denmark. But during that time, mortality rates—that is, the ratio of deaths in a place to its population—have changed dramatically among gay men and women.

During the three decades of the study period, the mortality rate for married gay men dropped drastically, and is now just below the mortality rate for divorced and unmarried heterosexual men. The researchers attribute the decline to advances in the treatment of HIV/AIDS.

What the authors didn’t expect to find was that the mortality rate has grown worse for lesbian couples. After years of steady decline, the risk of death among married gay women is now higher than those of married gay men, as well as unmarried heterosexual couples who live together.

By way of explanation, the researchers speculated that, “Lesbians may constitute a largely unnoticed high-risk population for suicide and breast cancer.”

O’Brien also said that he would not attend Vatican deliberations for the selection of a new pope to replace Pope Benedict XVI, who stunned the world on February 11 by announcing his own resignation.

But he would make no comment on the report by The Observer newspaper, which said that the Vatican had been made aware of accusations dating back to the 1980s.

In a statement, O’Brien said that “the Holy Father has now decided that my resignation will take effect today, 25 February 2013, and that he will appoint an apostolic administrator to govern the archdiocese in my place until my successor as archbishop is appointed.”

He added, “Looking back over my years of ministry: For any good I have been able to do, I thank God. For any failures, I apologize to all whom I have offended.”

O’Brien has headed the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland since 1985. He was elevated to cardinal in 2003 by Pope John Paul II, and was among the cardinals in 2005 that selected Benedict to serve as successor to John Paul.

The cardinals will begin meeting on Friday (Match 1) to decide when they will open the papal conclave.

On February 24, the newspaper reported that four men had complained to the pope’s diplomatic representative in Britain.

One of the four men who complained is a former priest who claimed that he left the priesthood because he could not live with spending a lifetime under O’Brien’s authority. The man allegedly accused the cardinal of making an “inappropriate approach” in 1980 when the man was an 18-year-old seminarian and O’Brien his spiritual counselor.

The other complainants are still priests. One spoke of inappropriate contact between him and O’Brien while the cardinal was still only a priest. The third said he was invited to spend a week “getting to know” O’Brien, who was by then an archbishop, and having to fend off “unwanted attention” and drunken advances.

The fourth man claimed that the prelate took advantage of his position as a counselor when the man came to him for guidance during the first years of his priesthood, when O’Brien was an archbishop.

According to the official church statement, “A number of allegations of inappropriate behavior have been made against the cardinal. The cardinal has sought legal advice, and it would be inappropriate to comment at this time. There will be further statements in due course.”

As a prince of the church, O’Brien’s record on gay rights has been mixed. Before his elevation to cardinal, O’Brien publicly acknowledged the large number of gay priests within the church, and voiced disapproval after a Scottish bishop said that homosexuals should be forbidden from teach in Roman Catholic schools.

In recent years, O’Brien has spoken against LGBT rights and described homosexual behavior as immoral. He also opposed allowing gay men and women to adopt children, and argued against same-sex marriage, calling it “harmful to the [couple’s] spiritual, mental and spiritual well-being.

In 2012, British LGBT rights group Stonewall selected O’Brien for its “Bigot of the Year” award.

The deluge of innuendoes and negative press is, according to some Vatican experts, the fruit of carefully orchestrated leaks intended to weaken some contenders for the Papal Throne.

On Saturday, February 23, the Vatican Secretariat of State said that the “widespread distribution of often unverified, unverifiable or completely false news stories that cause serious damage to persons and institutions” is “deplorable,” with Vatican officials comparing the reports to past efforts to influence the papal election, and suggested the rumors are “based on judgments that do not typically capture the spiritual aspect of the moment that the church is living.”

On February 11, Benedict announced that he would resign as leader of the world’s 1 billion Roman Catholics by the end of this month. Declaring that he was stepping down “in full liberty and for the good of the church,” the pope—who was born Joseph Ratzinger—cited advancing age and fatigue.

Last week, articles in the Italian daily newspaper La Repubblica—a center-left publication—and the Panorama—a weekly publication that skews center-right—reported that three cardinals appointed by Benedict to investigate an earlier Vatican scandal related to stolen documents had found evidence of highly-placed papal officials who were compromised by their personal—and possibly sexual—behavior.

“The report is explicit. Some high prelates are subject to ‘external influence’—we would call it blackmail—by non-church men to whom they are bound by ‘worldly’ ties,” the story in La Repubblica stated.

The newspaper wrote that the pope made the decision to resign on December 17, 2012, the day same day he received a report compiled by the cardinals who had been assigned to investigate so-called “Vatileaks” scandal, in which the pope’s butler, Paolo Gabriele, was arrested and charged with stealing and leaking papal correspondence.

La Repubblica claims that the report (“two volumes of almost 300 pages—bound in red”) describes several Vatican factions, including one whose members are “united by sexual orientation.”

The newspaper quoted a source “very close to those who wrote [the report]” who claimed that, “Everything revolves around the non-observance of the Sixth and Seventh Commandments.”

The Sixth Commandment (“Thou shalt not commit adultery”) is linked in Roman Catholic doctrine to forbidding homosexual acts. The Seventh Commandment (“Thou shalt not steal”) forbids theft.

According to La Repubblica, the cardinals’ report identified several places in and around Rome used by the members of ths gay faction, including a sauna in a suburb of the Eternal City, a villa, a beauty parlor, and a university residence belonging to an Italian archbishop.

Although the Vatican does not explicitly condemn homosexuals, the church that homosexuality is “intrinsically disordered,” and Benedict has forbidden sexually active gay men from applying for the priesthood.

Pulling no punches, Franco Grillini, the former leader of Italian gay rights group Arcigay, called Benedict “one of the biggest enemies of LGBT people.”

But others are split in just what the departure of the arch-conservative pontiff, who succeeded his mentor, John Paul II, as Bishop of Rome and pope in 2005, will mean.

Giuseppina la Delfa, President of Famiglie Arcobalenop, an LGBT family group, told expressed optimism about the selection of a new earthly leader of Roman Catholicism.

“I simply think that this Pope is obsessed by homosexuality and he acknowledged that a new Church is needed by our society,” la Delfa told reporters. “I’m optimistic. I think that the new Pope could only be a better one. The Vatican has understood that they have made a lot of mistakes, on human rights, on LGBT rights, on condoms, on new families and on modern needs of contemporary people.”

This week, Benedict XVI—born Joseph Ratzinger—announced that he will step down as the heir to St. Peter on February 28, at which time the Roman Catholic Church will begin the process of selecting his successor.

“After having repeatedly examined my conscience before God, I have come to the certainty that my strengths, due to an advanced age, are no longer suited to an adequate exercise of the Petrine ministry,” Benedict told a shocked world on Monday.

The Roman Catholic Church is the world’s largest Christian Church, with more than 1 billion members worldwide. It is among the world’s oldest institutions, playing a prominent role in western history. The Catholic hierarchy—led by the Pope and including cardinals, patriarchs of Eastern Rite conclaves that owe allegiance to Rome, and diocesan bishops—teaches that it is the one true Church, divinely founded by Jesus Christ, and that its bishops are successors of Christ’s apostles with the Pope being sole successor to St. Peter, who enjoyed apostolic primacy.

Imma Battaglia, a left-wing politician and gay rights Italian activist, had questions about the reasons underlining the pontiff’s decision to relinquish the Shoes of the Fisherman, despite Benedict’s claims of ill health and advancing age.

“Behind this resignation there’s the will to hide a scandal. Maybe something linked to money or, why not, to love,” Battaglia offered. “This Pope has made too many mistakes, but now he has been overwhelmed by the French and English votes on gay marriage and by the LGBT people’s requests, that’s the truth.”

But LGBT Roman Catholic activist Aurelio Mancuso offered words of caution. “I know the Church very well, and I know that nothing will change, at least not now,” he predicted.

“The cardinals’ conference is very conservative. It’s influenced by African and South American cardinals. They are against renovation and modernity. Then, we have to consider that Benedict XVI is still alive and that the new Pope will not be able to go against the doctrine of a man who’s still alive.”

The measure approved by the Chamber of Deputies, with the support of conservative politicians, will now go to the country’s Senate, where the ruling Broad Front coalition has enough vote for passage of the law, with President Jose Mujica expected to sign it in January.

Among the legislation’s other nuances, it will allow both gay and straight married couples to determine which of their surnames will take precedence in the naming of their children. In most Latin American countries, the laws mandate that children be given two last names, with the father’s listed first.

The new legislation will also replace the country’s 100 year old divorce, passed in 1912, which established the sole right of women to renounce their marriage vows without having to provide cause.

Later he added, “The Bible is quite specific that marriage is for men and women. If the state wants to offer civil marriage to the same sex then that is up to the state; but the state shouldn’t impose its rules on places of faith and conscience.”

Smith’s employer, the Trafford Housing Trust, has a company policy against expressing political or religious opinions that could be deemed offensive. Officials ruled that his posts were inappropriate, and cut his salary by 40 percent.

On November 16, the High Court found that Smith had done “nothing wrong,” and that his employer had unfairly punished him. “The breach of contract … committed [by the trust] was serious and repudiatory,” the judge wrote.

After the court decision, Smith said that he was proud to live in a “free country where people have freedom of speech.” Unlike the U.S., where free speech is guaranteed by the First Amendment to the Constitution, Britain has no such written formal guarantee.

Last Monday, Robin Tomlin received an apology in person from North Vancouver school district Superintendent John Lewis, who offered his regrets that officials had allowed the word “fag” to appear next to his name in the 1970 Argyle Secondary School yearbook.

“They just said how sorry they were and how it slipped through the cracks,” said Tomlin, who is now 60. “And they’ll institute remedies so that it won’t happen again.” Originally, officials had offered to reprint the offensive yearbook page, but had refused to make an official apology.

Tomlin, who has been diagnosed with terminal liver cancer, said he was regularly bullied in high school, usually by a group of student athletes who called him “You little faggot,” as they physically pushed him “out of the way.”

Tomlin acknowledged that the bullying was so severe he was afraid to attend his high school. In recognition of this, Tomlin’s friends held a “graduation ceremony” in front of the Argyle School—complete with cap and gown.

The newly-vindicated man says that he satisfied with the formal apology, but said that he has not from any of his former harassers, or from the yearbook editor. “I hope it bothers them,” Tomlin admitted, adding, “It doesn’t bother me.”

According to authorities, more than 50 people were inside 7freedays, one of a handful of Moscow’s gay and gay-friendly bars. Witnesses said that the attackers entered the club wearing hooded sweatshirts and surgical masks. They told police that some of the men shouted, “You asked for a fight?

Now you’ll get it,” and then attacked. The invasion lasted less than five minutes, with the attackers fleeing before police arrived.

LGBT advocates in Russia say the attack is part of a cultural effort to promote intolerance against gay men and women throughout the country, where three cities, including St. Petersburg, have passed laws that criminalize “homosexual propaganda.”

An official with the Russian Orthodox Church, which is the country’s predominant faith, recently supported introducing such laws nationwide, and Moscow’s highest court has upheld a municipal ordinance that bans gay pride parades until May 2112.

WASHINGTON, DC – Unconfirmed reports claim that slain U.S. Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens was gay. Stevens, 52, died last week after a mob stormed the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya. Reports describe Stevens as “a self-effacing bachelor with a wry sense of humor who drank beer, dated women and liked outdoor sports.”

According to gay conservative blogger Kevin DuJan of HillBuzz, an unnamed diplomatic source stated that Stevens was gay. According to DuJan, the source (identified only as “Dino,” an alleged employee of the Serbian consulate) told him, “It was stupid to send him to Libya as the ambassador when he was a known homosexual.”

Concerning reports that Stevens had been sodomized before his death, DuJan quotes “Dino” as saying, “It is like making him a woman in death, and he will be a woman now after life.”

There had been no credible confirmation about Steven’s sexual identity at press time for the Florida Agenda. Last week, DuJan told conservative WorldNetDaily. com that President Barack Obama is secretly gay. (“Nobody who knew Obama in the gay bar scene thought he could possibly be president,” DuJan told writer Jerome R. Corsi.)

According to a CIA memo sent this weekend to Members of Congress, the riots in Benghazi, Libya “were spontaneously inspired by the protests at the U.S. Embassy in Cairo,” which “evolved into a direct assault” on the consulate by “extremists.”

A video released immediate prior to Agenda press time shows Ambassador Stevens alive after being taken from the consulate. A freelance journalist on the scene, Fahd al-Bakoush, who shot the footage, says, “He was alive. No doubt. His face was blackened and he was like a paralyzed person.”

The video by al- Bakoush, which has been posted on YouTube, shows Stevens being carried out of the room through a window by a crowd of Libyans. “Bring him out, man,” a voice can be heard, shouting. “Out of the way, out of the way!” yells another.

Other shouts of, “Alive, alive!” can be heard, followed by a cheer of “God is great.” In the next scene, Stevens is seen laying on a tile floor as a man checks his neck for a pulse. Al-Bakoush claims that Stevens was then taken to the hospital in a private car.