Martina Navratilova Slams ‘Gay Sheep’ Experiment

Tennis Icon Condemns Cruel Tests Seeking to Alter Animals’ Sexual Preferences

For Immediate Release:
2 November 2006

Contact:
Karen Chisholm 020 7357 0229, ext 229

Oregon, US — Openly gay tennis icon Martina Navratilova is condemning hormone-altering experiments on “gay sheep” at Oregon State University (OSU) and Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) in the United States that seek to manipulate sheep’s sexual preferences and make them heterosexual.

In letters faxed to the presidents of both universities, Navratilova writes, “How can it be that, in the year 2006, a major university would host such homophobic and cruel experiments? … I respectfully ask that you pull the plug on this appalling and misguided research. Surely you can find a way to redirect the millions of public tax dollars that are being wasted on these experiments to a more fruitful venture—perhaps by funding a gay and lesbian community center to foster dialogue and acceptance for people of all sexual preferences?” The tests are funded by American taxpayers through the year 2008.

OHSU experimenter Charles Roselli is drugging sheep to prevent the actions of hormones in sheep’s fetal brains and cutting open the brains of rams he calls “male-oriented” (homosexual) in an attempt to find the hormonal mechanisms behind homosexual tendencies so that they can subsequently be changed. Roselli’s cohort, Frederick Stormshak of OSU, has surgically installed an estrogen device in rams’ bodies in an effort to alter “gay sheep’s” sexual preferences and make them heterosexual. According to the grant applications, the experimenters plan to extrapolate the test results to humans—with the insidious implication that homosexuality in people can be “cured.”

Navratilova—who has won nine Wimbledon Women’s Singles championships and, with a record 167 titles in singles and 174 in doubles, holds more overall tennis titles than any other player in history—adds, “For the sake of the animals who will die unnecessarily in these experiments and for the many gays and lesbians who stand to be deeply offended by the social implications of these tests, I ask that you please end these studies at once.”

For more information please visit PETA.org.uk. Navratilova’s letters to OSU and OHSU are available on request.

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