The National Institutes of Health awarded a hospital in Boston more than $1.5 million to figure out why nearly three-quarters of lesbians in America are overweight. The Cybercast News Service first revealed the study, but the topic really got trending as of Wednesday, March 20, about the hospital that wants to do the study saying that the disparities are a significant health issue.
"It is now well-established that women of minority sexual orientation are disproportionately affected by the obesity epidemic, with nearly three-quarters of adult lesbians overweight or obese, compared to half of heterosexual women," according to a description of the grant.
The money, straight from the pockets of taxpayers, was awarded to Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, MA, to study the exact relationship between obesity and sexual orientation. S. Bryn Austin is overseeing the entire project.
According to the paperwork issued with the grant, the study is set to begin shortly and has an end date of 2016.
Robert Bock, spokesman for the NIH, told Fox News that future grant payments could be impacted by sequestration.
"It is not possible to say how this or any other NIH grant will be affected in the long term beyond the 90 percent funding levels already in place," he said in a written statement.
"Obesity is one of the most critical public health issues affecting the U.S. today," the grant states. "Racial and socioeconomic disparities in obesity are receiving increasing attention; however, one area of disparities that is only beginning to be recognized is the striking interplay of gender and sexual orientation."
The hospital states in the grant that the disparities are of "high public-health significance." During the study, it will also be researched as to why heterosexual males have nearly double the risk of obesity compared to homosexual males.
There are numerous complaints coming out about this study and also the fact that many people ar immediately associating it with Rosie O'Donnell. Rush Limbaugh has, of course, also taken note of this grant and has his words to say.
"So 75 percent of lesbians are fat, and gay males are not, and that isn't fair, and that is unjust, and so we've gotta allocate a million and a half bucks in the sequester to find out why, and get to the bottom of this."
Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, is not happy about the money going toward this project at all. He hates the way that tax dollars are being used.
"When you look at a nation that’s $17 trillion in debt – there's a reason. It's because we do frivolous studies that serve no benefit other than to give a special interest group something to talk about," he told Fox News. "Why are we issuing grants to study things that have no affect on the well-being of the nation as a whole?"
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