A new treatment given to pregnant women in the hopes of preventing a condition called congenital adrenal hyperplasia (CAH), may have the unintended result of reducing the chances that girls receiving it will grow up to be lesbians.
CAH is considered a condition of sex differentiation (often called an intersex condition). It can cause a number of health problems and often affects genital appearance in girls. For example, a girl with CAH may have a large clitoris, or genitals that don't appear "typically" female.
Interestingly, girls with CAH may also be more likely to identify as lesbians.
So what's the problem with treating such a condition? There are a few. First off, the treatment given to pregnant women doesn't actually cure the disorder and the health problems that come with it. It is really just designed to treat the effects on the genitals--something that many people don't consider medically necessary.
Additionally, the treatment seems to influence sexual orientation, and makes it less likely that a girl whose mom had undergone it, would then be gay. Now while that might sound good to some uber-conservatives out there, it sure isn't appealing to the GLBT community and its allies!
"That such a treatment would ever be considered, even to prevent genital abnormalities, has outraged gay and lesbian groups, troubled some doctors and fueled bioethicists' debate about the nature of human sexuality. The treatment is a step toward "engineering in the womb for sexual orientation," said Alice Dreger, a professor of clinical medical humanities and bioethics at Northwestern University and an outspoken opponent of the treatment."
Such concern seems pretty valid to me. Right now people really don't know what causes sexual orientation, but more and more research is pointing towards biological causes. Paradoxically, while this might increase tolerance in those who think that being gay is a choice -- and a bad one at that -- it might also cause those types to look to anything that might be a "cure." I'm glad to see people raising the alarm about this early in the game. Let's hope the people who matter are listening!
