Robert Trivers is one of the world's leading experts on self delusion. (Or at least, that is what he likes to tell himself.) In his new book "Deceit and Self-Deception: Fooling Yourself the Better to Fool Others" he highlights that homosexuals who try to keep their sexuality secret pay a heavy price for it in terms of their health.
It seems that the effort of keeping such a big part of their lives secret hits their immune system. The exact way this happens hasn't been worked out, but it seems to be something to do with the immune system. If you are in the closet you have a higher risk of getting cancer and bronchitis, you are more likely to contract AIDS and if you do contract it you die 20% sooner.
Of course the gay people don't keep their inclinations secret out of whimsy, they do have to weigh up the risk of suffering some prejudice if they go come out. For straight people like myself it is a further reason to reinforce why intolerance is both a bad thing in itself and that it does more damage than you see on the surface.
I think there may be another lesson, that putting up any kind of a front may well have unanticipated drawbacks.
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