Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill: Prologue

I started a new page where I am going to list articles regarding Uganda and the precursors to the introduction of the Anti-Homosexuality Bill. It will not be exhaustive or complete but something I add to as I find relevant articles. The articles there now are from 2007. You will recognize some of the current promoters of the AHB in those articles.

Feel free to suggest other links.

3 thoughts on “Uganda’s Anti-Homosexuality Bill: Prologue”

  1. What has been endorsed would be an “expert consensus again stating this use of prenatal dexamethasone should only happen via IRB-approved clinical trials through research centers large enough to obtain meaningful data.” Yes, the trials. But I have my doubts on even those when evidently no indications are present for CAH

  2. …but never mind all that – because its use has been endorsed by the likes of the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Lawson Wilkins Pediatric Endocrine Society, the European Society for Paediatric Endocrinology, the European Society of Endocrinology, the Society of Pediatric Urology, the Androgen Excess and PCOS Society, and the CARES Foundation.

    Lynn,

    Thanks for the link. Do you think the article is stating all these groups are advocating ‘dex’ use, or are, in fact, requesting that any use now must be under research auspices in controlled studies, and only permitted by large research institutions?

    Surely, it doesn’t matter … the ethics implied are the same. As the writers indicate, the pursuit of such an agenda is just another avenue to pathologize homosexuality. If this plays out a tad bit more, amniocentesis results showing CAH may place women in the proverbial ‘rock and the hard place’ position … abortion or giving birth to a lesbian … if the woman does not want to undergo risky medication during pregnancy.

  3. BTW…. have you read about the supposed cure for such psycho-physiological non-diseases like lesbianism, traditionally masculine career choices, and disinterest in having children?

    In a paper published just this year in the Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, New and her colleague, pediatric endocrinologist Saroj Nimkarn of Weill Cornell Medical College, go further, constructing low interest in babies and men – and even interest in what they consider to be men’s occupations and games – as “abnormal,” and potentially preventable with prenatal dex:

    “Gender-related behaviors, namely childhood play, peer association, career and leisure time preferences in adolescence and adulthood, maternalism, aggression, and sexual orientation become masculinized in 46,XX girls and women with 21OHD deficiency [CAH]. These abnormalities have been attributed to the effects of excessive prenatal androgen levels on the sexual differentiation of the brain and later on behavior.” Nimkarn and New continue: “We anticipate that prenatal dexamethasone therapy will reduce the well-documented behavioral masculinization…”

    Gee… I thought 46,XX girls and women were just normal.

    Now the evidence that prenatal androgenization is the cause of such strange non-ladylike attitude is a rather iffy, and the use of the drug is quite experimental and has not been fully tested to determine if it works as claimed, but never mind all that – because its use has been endorsed by the likes of the American Academy of Pediatrics, the Lawson Wilkins Pediatric Endocrine Society, the European Society for Paediatric Endocrinology, the European Society of Endocrinology, the Society of Pediatric Urology, the Androgen Excess and PCOS Society, and the CARES Foundation.

    See:

    http://www.thehastingscenter.org/Bioethicsforum/Post.aspx?id=4754&blogid=140

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