Researcher on gay-sheep sex finds himself up against the wool

Dr. Charles Roselli set out to discover what makes some sheep gay. Then the news media and the blogosphere got hold of the story.

Roselli, a researcher at the Oregon Health and Science University, has searched for the past five years for physiological factors that might explain why about 8 percent of rams seek sex exclusively with other rams instead of ewes. The goal, he says, is to understand the fundamental mechanisms of sexual orientation in sheep. Other researchers might build on his findings to seek ways to determine which rams are likeliest to breed, he said.

But since last fall, when People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals started a campaign against the research, it has drawn outrage from animal-rights activists, gay-rights activists and ordinary citizens around the world - all of it based, Roselli and colleagues say, on a misinterpretation of what the work is about.

The story of the gay sheep became a textbook example of the distortion and vituperation that can result when science meets the global news cycle.

The news media storm peaked last month, when The Sunday Times in London published an article titled "Science Told: Hands Off Gay Sheep." It asserted, incorrectly, that Roselli had worked successfully to "cure" homosexual rams with hormone treatments, and added that "critics fear" that the research "could pave the way for breeding out homosexuality in humans."

The controversy spilled into the blog world, with attacks on Roselli, his university and Oregon State University, which is also involved in the research. PETA began an e-mail campaign that the universities say resulted in 20,000 protests.

The news coverage, heaviest in England and Australia, focused on smirk and titillation - and, of course, puns. Headlines included "Ewe Turn for Gay Rams on Hormones' and "He's Just Not That Into Ewe."

In recent weeks, the tide has begun to turn, with Roselli and Jim Newman, an Oregon Health and Science publicist, saying they have been working to correct the record in print and online.

The university has sent responses to senders of each PETA-generated e-mail message.

Roselli insists he is as repulsed as his critics by the thought of sexual eugenics in humans.

He said human sexuality was a complex phenomenon that could not be reduced to interactions of brain structure and hormones. *