After a wonderful and lively New Years Eve party full of Bollywood, bellydancing, and Elvis impersonators, I felt it necessary to add some balance to my fun-filled days by reminding myself of the constant development of new issues facing the queer community today. I woke up this morning sifting through the queer news, and I happened to find one particularly interesting article that brings up some very delicate and complex issues. More over the fold.
From Australia's NEWS Service:
US scientists are conducting experiments which aim to change the sexuality of homosexual sheep.
The news has provoked an outcry among the gay and lesbian community who fear it could pave the way for breeding out homosexuality in humans.
One gay rights campaigner likened the research to eugenics, while former Wimbledon winner Martina Navratilova, who is a lesbian, labelled it "homophobic".
The experiments were authorised to help farmers, who complained they were losing out financially because on average one in 10 rams is gay.
By studying the brains of the homosexual rams, scientists pinpointed the mechanisms influencing their sexual orientation.
They gave the sheep injections to adjust the levels of hormones in their brains and some of the previously gay rams became attracted to ewes.
I couldn't help but recall the plotline from the last X-Men movie, in which a "cure" is developed for mutants to become "normal" human beings. In the movie, the issue of a "cure" severely split the mutant community. Some clearly despised the fact that they were mutants, and simply wanted to fit into a very anti-mutant society, others viewed this as horrible, and could not understand why mutants would go through with it.
There does not seem to be a debate within the queer community over the pros and cons of searching for a potential "cure" to homosexuality, but if one were ever found, I'm almost certain that a significant number of gays and lesbians would either seek a cure or be pressured to seek it because of family pleadings, religious indoctrination or by fear of a life of discrimination and isolation as a queer person.
The search for a cure for gay rams is reflective of a heteronormative society that views aberrations from the heterosexual mold as problems that need to be fixed. The reason for the search for a cure for gay rams is because gay rams cannot produce children together. Does that sound familiar to the main argument used by opponents of gay marriage? We hear it all the time when opponents of same-sex marriage use the "marriage is for procreation" talking point.
This also reminds me of the story of the two gay male penguins who decided to settle down and start a family together (zookeepers eventually replaced the egg-shaped rock that the penguins decided to keep warm with a real egg). Zookeepers eventually tried to seperate the penguins. Why seperate them? Well it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see the EXTREME danger to the zoo by two same-sex penguins raising a baby penguin (Well.. At least how Jerry Falwell would put it).
( correction Olds88 points out that the zookeepers seperated the penguins for the purpose of breeding, not because they looked down on the same-sex relationship of the two male penguins:
"One thing it answers is the question posed about why the zookeepers tried to break up the couples. They were trying to increase breeding, not trying to impose social norms. When the experiment failed, the penguins reformed homosexual relationships. That may pose animal rights questions, but they weren't reacting to the "extreme" danger of gay penguins. In fact, they gave the couple an egg to hatch and raise. The zookeepers say they did a wonderful job.")
It's very ironic how human treatment of human lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender individuals reflect hot they treat their animals...
Now there is an entirely other side of this story regarding animal rights that I am very unprepared to tackle tonight, but it is a strong argument that should be made. I encourage any animal rights activist to run with this post and create their own post on this topic with a focus on the animal rights aspect of this.
Author's Note: My name is Kevin Ballie, a student at American University (AU). I happen to work at the Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender and Ally (GLBTA) Resource Center at AU. My area of activism centers particularly around GLBT activism. My goal is to write diaries on DailyKos as a regular update concerning issues facing the GLBT community. I sincerely hope to gain a readership base of committed GLBT activists and our supporters. Such a base will only enhance DailyKos and provoke greater thought. Just as a note, I may use terms like gay, lesbian,bisexual transgender (GLBT) or queer (a substitute for GLBT).