Attacks on the science of sex

Image by Eros Arts.

What does the Traditional Values Coalition have to do with the government’s funding and scientific studies about research on human sexuality and the science of sex? Well, *nothing*. Yet, sexual anything stays muzzled (or bound, if you will) thanks to… ideology. But read this great piece Scientists see political attacks as badge of pride, at Ars Technica to see the connections:

The use of science by politicians hoping to score ideological points can have a chilling effect on the way researchers go about their activities, according to a paper published in PLoS Medicine.

We have written about the current Administration’s attitudes toward science when that science was inconsistent with its desired outcome. One of the most high profile cases concerned the appointment of a 24 year old to a position in NASA’s press office who attempted to muzzle scientists on subjects ranging from climate change to the origins of the universe. But there have been plenty of other incidents, such as restricting the ability of scientists to attend international conferences on HIV/AIDS, the promotion of a widely discredited link between abortion and breast cancer on NIH web pages. (…)

(…) The specific action of House Republicans that challenged NIH grants is the focus of the current study. To recap the incident, Rep. Patrick Toomey (R-PA) took exception to five NIH grants, mainly intended to address the issue of sexuality, and tried unsuccessfully to pass an amendment that would have struck them from the 2004 NIH budget.

House and Senate Republicans then expanded the list of unacceptable grants from five to ten, and grilled NIH Director Zerhouni on the matter. Following that incident, a staffer sent the NIH a list of more than 250 grants that it was supposed to defend, although Congressional Republicans apologized and withdrew the list; it later became known that “the Traditional Values Coalition, a self-described conservative Christian lobbying group, claimed authorship of this list.” (…read more, thanks Jonathan!)