Progressive Insurance today announced they will begin marketing their Long-Term Care package to LGBT consumers. Take that, anti-gay Insure.com! [BusinessWire]

With regard to Insure.com's blog spreading anti-gay myths about gay life expectancy: "[CEO Robert Bland] wrote a response defending his company’s material, and he has left other comments on this web site which suggest that Insure.com has little interest in factual accuracy or professional responsibility. With these latest comments, whatever hope we first held that Insure.com would act responsibly and in the best interests of their customers, shareholders and participating agencies has now vanished." [BTB]

Publicly traded Insure.com's blog hosted two entries in which employee Joe White described homosexuality as "the biggest risk to life expectancy that goes unrecognized by insurance companies." Being gay, he goes on, all the while citing bunk research, can be just as disastrous as smoking. Insure.com CEO Bob Bland promised to investigate the matter, but did point out that insurance companies do regularly reject people based on HIV status and other "risky hobbies." Still, he insists the company wants "to do a wider-ranging issue that is fair and balanced…" Bill O'Reilly voices Insure.com's commercials. [Box Turtle Bulletin]