Rush Limbaugh Guest Host Reveals the REAL (aka, Fake) Reason for San Francisco's Shelter-in-Place Order

A Canadian pundit who appeared on Rush Limbaugh's radio show as a guest host March 17 offered a startling explanation for the "shelter in place" order that took effect in six California counties: It's all because San Francisco is where all the (gay) boys are, explained right-wing author and columnist Mark Steyn.

Media Matters quoted Steyn as saying:

Why are they doing that? Why is San Francisco the first to do that? Because they've got all the gay guys there. It's a big gay town, San Francisco, and they're the ones with all the compromised immune systems from all the protease inhibitors and all the other stuff. And they don't want all the gays dropping dead on the San Francisco mayor's watch. So that's why they've got all that sheltering in place there.

As reported by the San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco is only one city affected by the six-county-wide order.

Steyn's comments did not seem to take into account that health officials have advised such stringent measures in order to "flatten the curve" of the coronavirus' rate of infection, in large part to help prevent a major bolus of patients needing hospital care that could easily overwhelm hospitals and lead to greater fatality rates.

Nor did the Canadian commentator - who has written books with titles such as "America Alone" and "after America" - seem to reference the situation in Europe, where efforts to contain the virus are in far more vigorous effect, including the entire nation of Italy, which currently has a similar order in effect.

While it is true that immunocompromised individuals may be at higher risk from the virus, their sexual orientation is immaterial. As reported by the New York Times, various chronic conditions such as diabetes, heart disease, or cancer can also put people at greater risk. Even for otherwise healthy people, advanced age can, in and of itself, mean higher risk.

Steyn seemed to stop short of claiming that the coronavirus is some sort of divine punishment visited upon the world because sky gods are unhappy that gay people have the right to marry, although messages of that sort have emanated of late from fringe-right American evangelicals.

With theaters, cinemas, sports stadiums, and restaurants all going dark or curtailing many of their normal operations across the country, LGBTQ people will be as inconvenienced - and as protected - like everyone else by "social distancing" and the temporary shuttering of public areas. All the same, there are valid reasons for LGBTQ Americans could find themselves at higher risk.

A recent EDGE report covered some of those factors, and quoted Scout (who goes by only one name), the Deputy Director for the National LGBT Cancer Network, as saying that, "Our smoking rates alone make us extremely vulnerable, and our access to care barriers only makes a bad situation worse."

Even in more ordinary times, the LGBTQ population seems to be at higher risk for health concerns, many of them stemming from widespread and vitriolic animus directed toward sexual minorities. Studies have shown a definitive correlation between health issues faced by non-heterosexuals and local or state-level anti-LGBTQ legislation. The fact that sexual minorities face stigma and bias from medical providers worsens the overall situation.