Sunday, March 04, 2007

The importance of diversity and lgbt people

Recently some scientists have been carrying out experiments to find out if there is a biological cause of "gayness." Martina Navratilova drew attention to this when she wrote to Oregon State University pleading for the experiments to cease. Martina wrote: "How can it be that, in the year 2006, a major university would host such homophobic and cruel experiments? ... 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".

I've only covered a tiny fraction of people in a series of short cameos during February for LGBT history month. And the people I mentioned are all definitely from the lgbt community. But what would happen if these studies prove that "gayness" can be removed from sheep, and later a way is found to ensure humans are always heterosexual?

Would parents be allowed to screen out lesbian and gay kids? If the answer is yes, then the it carries an implied message: humans have no intrinsic value - we are here in order to reproduce and continue the human race, but our individual lifetime achievements are irrelevant. People without progeny - Newton, da Vinci and Beethoven - what are they worth.

No one knows for sure whether these people in history were gay, but if humans had always been specially selected for their propensity to procreate it is certain that many important people would never have lived.

The world is already seriously overpopulated and the last thing we need now is to ensure that everyone in future is heterosexual. Long live DIVERSITY.

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The BBC is taking a very long time to reply to my question about the Statements of Programme Policy 2007/2008. I was only asking if the Director-General would mind amending "The Purpose of the BBC" section near the beginning so that in future there is explicit mention of some other minorities. The 2006/2007 version reads:

The BBC’s purpose – largely unchanged in 80 years – is to enrich the life of every person in the UK regardless of age, income, sex, race or religion with programmes that inform, educate and entertain.

If the BBC is really committed to principles of equality and dIvErSiTy then you might think the Director-General would be happy to agree.

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