UPDATE: Looks like the whole thing was a scam cooked up by PETA. [found by Mark Derail]
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Any of you old enough to remember Wisconsin Senator Proxmire’s Golden Fleece awards? He would single out research that sounded funny or had a ‘silly’ sounding title as being wasteful without looking at what it was really about. A lot of good research and researchers were ruined by his unintelligent innuendo and tabloid-level attacks done for self promotion under the guise of saving tax money. Oddly, he would occasionally select something that truly was wasteful or corrupt, but it wasn’t often enough. What happened to this scientist is similar. Ah, what an enlightened culture we live in.
Of Gay Sheep, Modern Science and the Perils of Bad Publicity
Dr. Roselli, a researcher at the Oregon Health and Science University, has searched for the past five years for physiological factors that might explain why about 8 percent of rams seek sex exclusively with other rams instead of ewes. The goal, he says, is to understand the fundamental mechanisms of sexual orientation in sheep. Other researchers might some day build on his findings to seek ways to determine which rams are likeliest to breed, he said.
But since last fall, when People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals started a campaign against the research, it has drawn a torrent of outrage from animal rights activists, gay advocates and ordinary citizens around the world — all of it based, Dr. Roselli and colleagues say, on a bizarre misinterpretation of what the work is about.
The story of the gay sheep became a textbook example of the distortion and vituperation that can result when science meets the global news cycle.
No, but I’ve always wondered why something as common as a rainbow was co-opted by and is now almost exclusively associated with homosexuals. Funny that my best friend (who is an open lesbian) is more annoyed by it than I could ever be; but she’s not a big fan of people who aren’t strong enough to be individuals and instead insist on wrapping themselves in a group identity.
No, no sir i haven’t.
#1, I don’t automatically associate a rainbow with homosexuals. Usually the first thing that comes to my mind is the cover of Dark Side of the Moon and the whole prism thing.
Politically I associate the rainbow with Jesse Jackson’s movement of inclusion of all faiths and colors.
If I’ve been into the Bailey’s, I might associate a rainbow with some leprechaun standing guard over a pot of gold.
Some days I associate a rainbow with “its a gunna rain”.
Most importantly, I don’t associate rainbows, or even project titles, with anything of substance. A rainbow is there, but it is actually a twisted broken view of reality. Those who judge by looking at a rainbow or just the title of a book, project, or invoice without bothering to inquire deeper are the worst forms of critics. Senator Proxmire and other extremists falls into that category.
I don’t automatically associate a rainbow with homosexuals.
Put a rainbow bumper sticker on your car and you will find out that you are probably not in the majority.
I used to have a large number of lesbian friends (long boring story) and I don’t remember any of them speaking positively or negatively about the rainbow as a gay icon, but they were certainly ALL aware of it. (And more than a few had the bumper stickers.)
Mmmmmmmm. Baileys. I can usually only afford Brendans, though.
This is a PHONY STORY cooked up by Peta !!
http://tinyurl.com/2ck2a2
In order to bring attention to how animals are used in research, and to fight them, Peta dreamed up this phony gay> story to put the researcher and the company he works for under a bad light.
The article I linked to is about how the National Post (Canada newspaper) got suckered in and says I’m sorry and quite angry.
Reminds me of The Onion, that every now & then, a news reporter reprints an Onion story thinking it’s true. Then across the world, people pick up on the story because it’s no longer from The Onion, the ignorant reporter having republished it.
Way to go PETA, you’ve made countless enemies from news reporters around the world by humiliating them in the worst possible way, by making them incompetent researchers.
Now, about all the bloggers that picked up on the story w/o first verifying the facts . . . Uncle Dave tsh tsh tsh
From said article…..Way to go Barbara!
How I fell for PETA’s gay ram scam
Barbara Kay, National Post
Published: Wednesday, January 24, 2007
Hell hath no fury like one journalist bamboozled by another. This journalist was furious when she learned that the Dec. 31 British Sunday Times article “Science told: Hands off Gay Sheep” — upon whose “facts” she relied for last Wednesday’s column, “When feminism and gay rights butt heads” — was a farrago of misleading data mixed with statements cut from whole cloth. One looks out for this sort of deception when surfing Blogs and obscure news sites; but it is highly unusual to see it happen at a respected, world-class newspaper such as the Times of London.
Sounds like PeTA didn’t learned from their mistake of mixing the Holocaust with animal farms and now they are doing it again, this time appealing to homophobia.
If Feminists want proof that women are better than men when they are in charge, they should look someplace else.
#4 – Put a rainbow bumper sticker on your car and you will find out that you are probably not in the majority.
That’s okay…
I place no premium on being in the majority, nor can I find any virtue in it at all.
It should be legal to perform any act of abuse you like on a PETA member. Inf fact, it should be encouraged.
One good thing about these kinds of articles is that it helps shut up the anti-homosexual bigots who claim homosexuality is “unnatural”. It’s very natural, occurs throughout the animal world. Look up the book “Biological Exuberance” on Amazon.
If this does result in people being able to prevent their kids from being homosexual, now that’s worth debating. Personally, I see nothing wrong with it. It doesn’t make a person homophobic to want a straight kid.
Actually, sheep are homosexual because of the ancient Greeks.
#8 Kung-Tzu said: “The superior man is harmonious, but does not go with the crowd. The inferior man follows the crowd, but does not find peace.”
#10 Define natural? Is it natural that a species can’t procreate?
Face it, it’s a genetic defect, but who cares.
#13, actually, I’d probably guess that it will be shown to be more a developmental anomaly rather than a genetic one. But you are right, it doesn’t really matter at all. As another person pointed out, the only real use of knowing might be to somehow prevent innate homosexuality from developing in the first place.
It seems to me that gay groups tend to take interest in these types of studies because they feel some need to justify their desires, but there are many things that just “are what they are,” and don’t require justification or explanation.
And none of this even tries to address the people who turn to homosexuality, not because of some innate desire, but simply because of the need for sexual pleasure and gratification in the absence of heterosexual partners. i.e. in prison populations.
Gay sheep t-shirts! Ha!
http://www.cafepress.com/spookyharris
#15, holy crap that is awesome. Something to wear the next time I get dragged to watch the drag queens.
#14
Actually, I don’t give a f*ck about these kind of researchs. I’d rather give some bearded scientists a good ride 😉
“..8 percent of rams seek sex exclusively with other rams instead of ewes…”
Was it a gay sheep that first referred to female sheep as “eee-ooh”?
#11,
And I’m sure some of the younger Greeks had something to do with it to. BTW, it is rude to call the old Greek guys ancient. Just because they are older then you is no reason to get all pissy.
I also heard that some Australian sheep farmers have been making the rams turn gay too. Geeze, those handsome, virile, stud muffins down under can do it.
I recall a rat overpopulation study done, gawd, many years ago. They made sure the study rats had plenty of food and water, and cages were kep clean, and other than that allowed nature to take its course. As the cage got more and more populated, a progression of behaviors occurred, including hostility, withdrawal (in the form of hanging from the overhead to avoid contact with other rats), lunching on newborns, and at some stage, increased incidence of homosexuality.
Not saying being gay is a psychological problem or is caused by any one thing. But the research did suggest that social factors can have a strong influence on sexual behaviors. Also, um, maybe all those fictitious gay rams just needed more personal space?
#20 Maybe those rats were gay from birth, but in the closet afraid to come out until the overpopulation happened and they said “WTF, who cares now…” Mob mentality.
Gives new meaning to the old phrase….**Beware of Greeks bearing gifts** huh Fusion?
But it’s not just the Greeks, or the Aussie…..gotta watch your back (pun intended) if your a sheep in Wales and Scotland as well.
#22, And I’ve made up stories about Arizona too. They must be true, I invented them.
LOL
In the UK and probably everywhere sheep farmers put paint on their herd to show which sheep belong to them. About 25 years ago on a long walk through Derbyshire we walked through a field full of sheep, half marked AC the rest DC. I’d run out of film by then so I can’t show you all. But ever since then I’ve wondered.
Yet another interesting read on the RAMifications of this story.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/life/badscience/story/0,,1989465,00.html
I first read about the hoax on Fark.com btw.
Yesterday BoingBoing.net had it up all day as a real story, was just updated with above article.
The Onion must be biting their nails to One-Up PETA on this one. Their Mars Rover Story is a hilarious must read.
http://www.theonion.com/content/node/54360
“We began getting the occasional transmission along the lines of ‘ANOTHER SOIL SAMPLE OF THE EXACT SAME COMPOSITION AS THE LAST ONE,'”