"We don't discriminate", says advisor

An independent financial advisor has condemned the insurance industry for discriminating against gay and lesbian people and insisted that their own firm does not hold prejudices.

Ruth Whitehead of Ruth Whitehead Associates stressed that it is illegal to discriminate against gay male lifestyles in terms of what questions are asked in the process of application for insurance.

She criticised the attitude of some life insurance providers who were rejecting gay man’s applications due to perceptions about their lifestyle.

"He would get, immediately and irrespective of his lifestyle, either a decline of his request for health cover or life cover, or a quadrupling of the premium automatically by an idiot actuary who didn’t understand the difference between lifestyle and sexual practice," explained Ms Whitehead, describing the process.

"The opinion is that we don’t discriminate and vast swathes of the rest of my so-called profession do," she said.

In October 2005 the insurance industry introduced a new Statement of Best Practice on HIV and Insurance, which included guidelines on how insurers should question applicants.