Graphic copied from Kentucky Equality Federation, sponsor of the International Day Against Homophobia in Kentucky.

A prenatal pill for congenital adrenal hyperplasia to prevent ambiguous genitalia may reduce the chance that a female with the disorder will be gay. Critics call it engineering for sexual orientation while others are calling it outright genetic engineering.

Each year in the United States, perhaps a few dozen pregnant women learn they are carrying a fetus at risk for a rare disorder known as congenital adrenal hyperplasia. The condition causes an accumulation of male hormones and can, in females, lead to genitals so masculinized that it can be difficult at birth to determine the baby’s gender.

A hormonal treatment to prevent ambiguous genitalia can now be offered to women who may be carrying such infants. It’s not without health risks, but to its critics those are of small consequence compared with this notable side effect: The treatment might reduce the likelihood that a female with the condition will be homosexual. Further, it seems to increase the chances that she will have what are considered more feminine behavioral traits.

That such a treatment would ever be considered, even to prevent genital abnormalities, has outraged gay and lesbian groups, troubled some doctors and fueled bioethicists’ debate about the nature of human sexuality.

The treatment is a step toward “engineering in the womb for sexual orientation,” said Alice Dreger, a professor of clinical medical humanities and bioethics at Northwestern University and an outspoken opponent of the treatment.

The ability to chemically steer a child’s sexual orientation has become increasingly possible in recent years, with evidence building that homosexuality has biological roots and with advances in the treatment of babies in utero. Prenatal treatment for congenital adrenal hyperplasia is the first to test — unintentionally or not — that potential.

In animal studies, the treatment appears to cause an increased risk of high blood pressure, plus changes in glucose metabolism, brain structure and brain function, leading to memory problems, for example. Long-term studies in humans are lacking.

Copyright © 2010, Los Angeles Times

Genetic Engineering

Graphic copied from Kentucky Equality Federation, sponsor of the International Day Against Homophobia in Kentucky.

Being born gay or lesbian is not a sickness or a disease. The United Nations World Health Organization removed it from their list in 1978 thanks to the International Lesbian and Gay Association (“ILGA”) and enormous pressure from medical experts.  This resulted in U.S. states as well as the U.S. Center for Disease Control (“CDC”) and other world governments to do the same.

This finding will eventually have profound long-term impacts on the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender community. Some doctors and scientists still believe homosexuality is a sickness despite reports from the American Medical Association and other reputable organizations to the contrary.

1. Would you change your sexual orientation with a pill or therapy if you could?
2. Would you have wanted your parents to take that action?
   

The Republic of Malawi of a member of the Commonwealth of Nations.  The Commonwealth of Nations consists of 54 member states, all but two of these countries were formerly part of the British Empire.

The sentenced gay couple, Tiwonge Chimbalanga and Steven Monjeza.

Tiwonge Chimbalanga and Steven Monjeza — who were sentenced to 14 years hard labor on Thursday for getting engaged in a traditional ceremony in December — has created an international outcry, with celebrities including Madonna joining calls for their release.

Lawyers for Malawi’s convicted first openly gay couple and human rights groups said they plan to appeal to the country’s high court against the harsh sentence handed the couple.

Canadian Foreign Minister Lawrence Cannon criticized the Malawi government for jailing the gay couple. “Cases like this are cases we condemn,” Mr. Cannon said Thursday, hours after the two men were sentenced. “We will be following this case as every other case. Canada has a great reputation internationally because we stand up for human rights, and speak out on … things that need to be denounced.”

U.S. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said the United States was “appalled” by the sentence and called on the Malawian government to respect the human rights of all its citizens.

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs also issued a statement, bolstering the statement from U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton’s spokesman:   “The criminalization of sexual orientation and gender identity is unconscionable, and this case mars the human rights record of Malawi. We urge Malawi and all countries to stop using sexual orientation or gender identity as the basis for arrest, detention, or execution,” Gibbs said.

A spokesman for for United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon announced today the head of the United Nations will visit Malawi, Uganda, and Burundi on May 29th and 30th.

Navanethem Pillay, the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights issued the following statement:

“I am shocked and dismayed by the sentence and reports of the treatment of Steven Monjeza and Tiwonge Chimbalanga while in detention,” Pillay said. “The law which enabled the conviction dates back to the colonial era and has lain dormant for a number of years – rightly so, because it is discriminatory and has the effect of criminalizing and stigmatizing people based on perceptions of their identity. If this was replicated worldwide, we would be talking about the widespread criminalization of millions of people in consensual relationships and the rampant violation of privacy.”

“Laws that criminalize people on the basis of their sexual orientation are by their nature discriminatory, and as such are in apparent violation of a number of key international treaties and instruments, including the African Charter on Human and People’s Rights,” Pillay stated. “Unfortunately they still exist in quite a number of countries across the world. The trend should be towards getting rid of them, as is the case with other forms of discrimination. Instead, some countries, including Malawi, seem to be heading in the opposite direction.”

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) is a United Nations agency that works to promote and protect the human rights that are guaranteed under international law and stipulated in the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights of 1948.

ILGA CALLS ON THE COMMONWEALTH OF NATIONS AND THE UNITED NATIONS FOR ACTION:

Malawi children protest in favor of the sentence, and even death.

The International Lesbian and Gay Association (“ILGA”), a non-government observer at the United Nations stated: “This is an appalling, vindictive and brutal sentence, which tramples on Malawi’s constitution, violates personal privacy and reverses the country’s commitment to human rights. Steven and Tiwonge love each other and have harmed no one. Yet they get a sentence more severe than some rapists, armed robbers and killers.

ILGA stated they had called on government authorities and leaders at the Commonwealth of Nations, and the United Nations to condemn these violent breaches of gay people’s right. This precedence will endanger the very fabric of society that we seek to protect, to live peaceful side by side and will jeopardize the process of saving lives.

UNITED STATES BLAMED FOR THE TORTURE OF Africa’s GAY COMMUNITY

News sites and papers across the world are slamming the United States as the problem in Africa.

A Washington, D.C. secret society known as “The Family,” was directly linked to death sentences for all homosexuals in the Republic of Uganda. (previous story)

Times Online, a publication in the United Kingdom reported:

Africa’s gays are paying the price for the ideological and cultural battle between US liberals and Conservatives. Concepts such as same-sex marriage, the ordination of gay and women priests, contraception and sex before marriage, female emancipation and equality — the litmus tests of tolerance in the politically correct West — sit uneasily in deeply conservative and traditional societies in Africa.

America’s right-wing Christian fundamentalists have been quick to exploit the situation. Allied with unscrupulous and corrupt politicians they saw an opportunity to win mass support with anti-gay actions and create a springboard from which to begin the fight back against the “evil” back home.

ILGA is the only worldwide federation campaigning for lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans and intersex (LGBTI) rights and was established in 1978. The aim of ILGA is to work for the equality of LGBTI people and their liberation from all forms of discrimination. It seeks to achieve this aim through the worldwide cooperation and mutual support of its members.

ILGA ASIA is the Asian branch of ILGA and it has successfully organized conferences in India, the Philippines and Thailand in the past. ILGA ASIA has over 160 member organizations in more than 17 nation-states across Asia.

ILGA ASIA accepted the proposal of GAYa NUSANTARA, the oldest LGBT organization in Indonesia, to host the fourth Regional Conference of ILGA Asia in Surabaya, Indonesia.

The conference organizers received endorsements from the local city police to hold the conference. However, as news of the conference became known to local media and groups of fundamentalists, who opposed the conference, they began to threaten to disrupt the conference and upset the participants with violent protests. The police withdrew their endorsement of the conference fearing to not be able to control the fundamentalists and the safety of the conference participants.

The board later received information that a group of fundamentalists had mobilized themselves after Friday prayers and were heading towards the hotel. For the safety of the participants and in the best interest of all those involved, the board decided to cancel the program of events for the afternoon session.

The heads of the fundamentalist groups entered the hotel demanding to speak to the ILGA ASIA organizers and Mr. King Oey, a member of the ILGA ASIA’s Regional Board of Directors and part of the organizing committee tried to reason with them, only to be assaulted in return.

Abdussomad Bukhori, a prominent member of the cleric council, released the following statement:

“The event will hurt Indonesian Muslims because lesbians and gays are contrary to Islamic teaching,” he said. “We will continue to reject any kind of homosexual event.”

Renato Sabbadini, Co-Secretary-General of ILGA Worldwide (pictured) said the rule of law was basically suspended during the Islamist mob’s attack on the gay conference. By early evening, it became necessary to evacuate the participants in groups of four. Some were aided by their embassies, others who managed to change their flights were taken directly to the airport, whilst others were moved to different hotels and some left Surabaya by land to neighboring cities.

The Secretaries General of ILGA left the hotel with the last participants to a hotel near the airport, where the last departures were arranged. On the same day, news spread in relation to the Ministry of Religious Affairs, announcing a court action against the organizing committee for “activities against religion”.

ILGA, as part of an international coalition of LGBTI rights defenders, has initiated a coordinated operation to denounce and protest against the attack that occurred, with the concerned international bodies and to demand action from these as a result. Many voices have risen, in Indonesia and in different countries around the world, demanding the respect of human rights of LGBT people and the right to assembly.

The demand of action is based on the fact that in Indonesia:

(a) The constitution has a strong equality clause
(b) The constitution is based on secular principles
(c) Indonesia has ratified the major United Nations human rights treaties

Members of ILGA in the United States include California’s Marriage Equality USA, Georgia Equality,  Kentucky Equality Federation, Human Rights Watch (not to be confused with Human Rights Campaign), and other statewide LGBTI advocacy organizations.

ILGA ASIA Regional Board of Directors released the following statement:

The ILGA ASIA Regional Board of Directors stands firm in our belief that all people are created equal and free and that we all have the right to live as we are, and to love who we love. This incident has not weakened our movement but has only made us stronger. For we know our work is important and what we do changes the lives of so many people around Asia and the world. Our determination is that much stronger and our belief is that much more. Our work is not over until all people can live in a world that accepts us for who we are.

In February, David Bahati, the mover of the controversial Anti-Homosexuality Bill (previous story) is expected to attend a prayer breakfast in the American capitol of Washington in the District of Columbia.

Mr. Bahati, according to reports, may speak at the event where U.S. President Barack Obama is also expected to attend. On Friday, Mr Bahati said he would attend. The event is organized by The Fellowship- a conservative Christian organization, which has deep political connections and counts several high-ranking conservative politicians in its membership.

“I intend to attend the prayer breakfast,” said Mr. Bahati – himself a part organiser of the Ugandan equivalent of the national prayer breakfast. This week, citing international pressure, President Yoweri Museveni advised his party’s National Executive Committee, his cabinet and the NRM parliamentary caucus to “go slow” on the Bill (previous story).

“The nature of legislation is such that one cannot have a final version. There are bound to be amendments but the process will go on,” he said.  The entire affair has given the Museveni administration its worst spate of bad publicity in recent times.

Mr Museveni called it a foreign policy matter – elevating the Bill to the status of other concerns for the government like its engagement in the African Union and the United Nations Security Council.

Dr. Ruhakana Rugunda, the former minister of internal affairs, who is now Uganda’s representative at the United Nations.

Uganda President Museveni also revealed that he had received several phone calls from world leaders, including from U.S. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton.  His reaction, say observers, shows that the Uganda government is taking the issue seriously enough.

“We need to protect our children and stop recruitment,” he says.

Uganda has been warned that passing the law would lead to sanctions from the Commonwealth of Nations, the United Nations, Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States.