Three different quotes have now appeared in the media regarding President Morales claiming he said eating chicken turns men gay.
Which quote is accurate? You tell me.
Here's the quotes:
Quote #1. Evo Morales told a conference on climate change: "The chicken we eat is loaded with female hormones. So, when men eat it, they tend to deviate from their manhood."
http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2010/04/22/bolivian-president-says-eating-chicken-turns-men-gay/Quote #2. "When we talk about chicken, it's pumped full of female hormones," Morales said, "and so when men eat this chicken, they stray from being men" (literally tienen desviaciones en su ser como hombres in Spanish).
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1984064,00.html#ixzz0m2iipFb9Quote #3. He said chicken producers inject birds with female hormones and "when men eat those chickens, they experience deviances in being men."
http://www.myfoxphilly.com/dpps/news/dpgonc-eating-chicken-can-make-men-deviant%2C-bolivia-leader-warns-mh-20100421_7175804I don't believe that President Morales and the Bolivian government along with the left are preparing to launch an attack on the gay community. Whatever he actually did say can easily be misinterpreted and be used by political opponents in the corporate media. I'm sure President Morales meant no harm with his comments and was certainly not engaged in any gay bashing. Like the United States, Bolivia has a long way to go in establishing equal GLBT rights. But, progress is being made according to GLBT leaders. The left is learning in Latin America, as it learned over time in the United States, and most in the Latin American left have become strong advocates of gay and lesbian rights.
Here's the Bolivian Foreign Ministry response:
When Bolivian President Evo Morales took the stage to inaugurate the World People's Summit on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth on Tuesday, April 20, in Cochabamba, he gave his thousands of politically correct attendees a surprise. Somewhere between appealing for an international climate-change court and questioning why the U.N. still uses plastic cups, Morales went after genetically modified foods — by making a comment that some think meant that hormones cause homosexuality.
"When we talk about chicken, it's pumped full of female hormones," Morales said, "and so when men eat this chicken, they stray from being men" (literally tienen desviaciones en su ser como hombres in Spanish). The comment went over non–Spanish speakers' heads, so it wasn't until sundown that it rippled its way through the 35,000-participant gathering. By the next morning, the international press had gotten wind of it, Bolivian newspapers had plastered it on their front pages and Spain's national LGBT federation had issued a statement calling the comment "homophobic."
The Morales government swears he meant no harm. "He made no mention of sexuality," the Foreign Relations Ministry said on Thursday, April 22, in response. "Rather, he said that eating chicken that has hormones changes our own bodies. This point of view has been confirmed by scientists, and even the European Union has prohibited the use of some hormones in food," the government asserts, citing studies that have shown that sexual hormones in food can cause genital abnormalities in boys. The document has not assuaged all critics — especially since the Latin left, which Morales represents, has historically been considered less than sympathetic to homosexuals — but it has taken some of the heat off Morales.
Bolivia's President also called Coca-Cola the poor man's Drano. "If the plumber comes to your house and can't get the job done with all his tools," Morales quipped, "have him pour Coca-Cola down the clogged toilet, and problem solved." This jab was better received, since Bolivians think the beverage company unfairly benefits from the country's traditional coca leaf. The leaf, an integral part of Bolivian indigenous culture as well as the base ingredient for cocaine, is banned outside the Andes. Bolivia therefore can't export its popular tea, for example. However, the U.N. Convention on Narcotics offers an exception when the leaf is used as a "flavoring agent." The Coca-Cola company refuses to disclose any part of its secret formula, but reporting suggests the coca leaf is in the recipe. Morales may have timed this remark on purpose: just last week, a small company in Bolivia introduced "Coca-Colla" into the local market (Colla refering to the native Andean highland people), a new energy soda that proudly uses coca as a main ingredient.
Though the off-color remarks took center stage in the press, summit participants chalked them up to quirky humor and kept focus on what few consider a laughing matter — the growing climate crisis. Morales called for this "people's" summit back in January after what he and many in the global south saw as unwillingness on the part of developed-world leaders to set out a sustainable path in Copenhagen. Workshops and panels in Cochabamba echoed with harsh criticism of the Copenhagen Accord's back-door birth and complaints that it falls short of what's needed to curb climate problems.
http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1984064,00.html