Chickens and Satan Will Not Cause Gay Marriage

World leaders might want to consider staying away from discussions about the causes of homosexuality. Exhibit A? Bolivian President Evo Morales. Exhibit B? Malawi's President, Bingu wa Mutharika.

Speaking last week at a UN meeting on climate change, Bolivia's leader offered up what might be labeled as the most peculiar belief about what causes homosexuality. No, it's not genetics. It's eating chicken, particularly birds that are injected with hormones. Morales suggested that when men eat chickens that are given hormones, "they experience deviances in being men."

Wow, talk about a fowl statement. (Heyoo!) At least Morales avoided suggesting that soy milk could cause homosexuality. Perhaps that's a sign of progress.

Meanwhile, not to be outdone, Malawi President Bingu wa Mutharika spoke to a crowd this past weekend, suggesting that it wasn't chicken to blame for homosexuality, but Satan himself.

"There are issues of homosexuality, selling of private parts, incidences of corruption, gender based violence and rampant theft. This is disgusting and does not please me at all," Mutharika said, adding that Satan is pulling the strings behind all of these. Oddly enough, Mutharika said this during an ordination service for an Episcopalian bishop. How very pastoral.

Both statements are troubling. In Morales' case, the statement may itself be a little silly, but it certainly reinforces a machismo culture. It also detracts from some really good things that come out of Morales' mouth (like, for instance, his comment that Coca-Cola was "a poor man's Drano." Literally, houses in poor areas dump Coca-Cola down their drains to unclog them, while across the world many people put this substance into their bodies).

In Mutharika's case, however, the implications are a thousand times more frightening. That's because in Malawi, two men are currently in prison awaiting trial for being gay, and partaking in a same-sex wedding ceremony. The two men, Tionge Chimbalanga and Steven Monjeza, have been jailed since December, dealing with horrible health conditions inside Malawi's prisons. Numerous human rights groups have called for their release, as have hundreds of Change.org members. You can lend your voice calling for Tionge and Steven to be set free.

Bottom line? Questions about the origins of sexuality should best be left to medical or sociological researchers, and not politicians. Or better yet, let's just chalk it up to one of those mysteries of the world, assuming that since queer people have existed throughout time, homosexuality might just be part of that fabric we call humanity.

And no hormone-laced chicken or man with horns can take that fact away.

Photo credit: Green Garden Girl