The document discusses research being conducted by Oregon scientists on the sexual preferences of male sheep. The research aims to study biological factors associated with sexual orientation in sheep. However, the research has generated significant backlash from animal rights and LGBT groups who have misinterpreted the goals of the research. Media coverage of the research has spread misinformation and accusations against the scientists. The scientists emphasize that their research goal is to further basic scientific understanding and not to change human sexuality.

1. Science News, Spot News, or Both?
Managing and Covering Science
Protests
ScienceWriters 2011
Andy Dworkin

3. SHEEP STUDY TIES SEXUAL
PREFERENCE TO BRAIN
Oregonian, The (Portland, OR) - Tuesday, November 5, 2002
Oregon scientists studying male sheep have discovered that the rams'
sexual preference is associated with a structural difference in part of their
brain.
The researchers measured a small bundle of nerves in a region of the
brain linked to sexuality. They report that rams who mate with females have
nerve bundles much larger than rams who prefer male partners. Male-oriented
rams had nerve bundles roughly the same size as ewes.
That finding, presented Monday at the Society for Neuroscience's annual
meeting in Florida, is the first to show a naturally occurring correlation between
sexual preference and a brain structure in research animals, said Charles
Roselli, a professor of physiology and pharmacology at Oregon Health & Science
University who worked on the study.
Edition: SUNRISE
Section: LOCAL STORIES
Page: B01

4. No. 97, Oregon State
DT Ben Siegert

5. STUDIES OF RAMS’ ORIENTATIONS
ASSIST RANCHERS
Oregonian, The (Portland, OR) - Saturday, March 19, 2005
Yes, there really are homosexual male sheep, and, yes, Oregon
researchers study them.
Last week's arrest of an Oregon State University football player for
stealing a ram involved in a sexual-orientation study brought the university
an athletic scandal, a bevy of jokes and many questions about why they
have such sheep to start with.
As many ranchers know, roughly 5 percent to 8 percent of rams try to
mate with other rams instead of with ewes. For at least a decade, Oregon
State and Oregon Health & Science University have studied such
sheep, looking for biological links to that behavior…
Edition: SUNRISE
Section: SPORTS
Page: C03

7. OSU, OHSU study of 'male-oriented'
rams gains high-profile foe
Oregonian, The (Portland, OR) - Saturday, November 4, 2006
The tale of Oregon's gay sheep experiment just grew stranger.
On Thursday, tennis great Martina Navratilova sent letters asking the
presidents of OSU and OHSU to end what she calls "homophobic and cruel
experiments."
"Many gays and lesbians," she wrote, "stand to be deeply offended
by the social implications of these tests."
For years, researchers at Oregon State University and Oregon Health
& Science University searched in relative obscurity for biological
differences that might distinguish rams who mount ewes from rams who
mount rams…
Edition: Sunrise
Section: Local News
Page: D01

9. SCIENCE TOLD: HANDS OFF GAY SHEEP
Sunday Times [United Kingdom], Britain News
by Isabel Oakeshott and Chris Gourlay, 31/12/2006
Experiments that claim to ‘cure’ homosexual rams spark anger
SCIENTISTS are conducting experiments to change the sexuality of
“gay” sheep in a programme that critics fear could pave the way for
breeding out homosexuality in humans.
The technique being developed by American researchers adjusts the
hormonal balance in the brains of homosexual rams so that they are more
inclined to mate with ewes.
It raises the prospect that pregnant women could one day be offered
a treatment to reduce or eliminate the chance that their offspring will be
homosexual. Experts say that, in theory, the “straightening” procedure on
humans could be as simple as a hormone supplement for mothers-to-
be, worn on the skin like an anti-smoking nicotine patch.
The research, at Oregon State University in the city of Corvallis and
at the Oregon Health and Science University in Portland, has caused an
outcry. Martina Navratilova, the lesbian tennis player who won
Wimbledon nine times, and scientists and gay rights campaigners in
Britain have called for the project to be abandoned....

10. http://othersiderainbow.blogspot.com/2007/01/science-
told-hands-off-gay-sheep.html

11. Of Gay Sheep, Modern Science And
the Perils of Bad Publicity
New York Times, The (NY) - Thursday, January 25, 2007
Author: JOHN SCHWARTZ
Charles Roselli set out to discover what makes some sheep gay. Then the news media
and the blogosphere got hold of the story.
Dr. 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 some day
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 a torrent of outrage from animal rights activists,
gay advocates and ordinary citizens around the world -- all of it based, Dr. Roselli and
colleagues say, on a bizarre 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 reached its zenith last month, when The Sunday Times in
London published an article under the headline "Science Told: Hands Off Gay Sheep."

13. Sheep study touches off backlash
Oregonian, The (Portland, OR) - Friday, February 2, 2007
You may think Oregon scientists working in obscurity would like having their
research discussed in The London Times, The New York Times and hundreds of papers
and blogs worldwide.
Not when you're being called a homophobe and compared to Nazis.
Two men studying sheep sexuality say they've been blindsided by a recent flood
of error-filled news stories and hostile Internet communications about their work.
Many reports falsely say that they aim to prevent homosexuality in people.
A London Sunday Times story (since retracted) even said pregnant women might
one day wear hormone patches to prevent gay infants - an idea Oregon State University
researcher Fred Stormshak called, "The most ludicrous thing I've heard of."
Stormshak and lead researcher Charles Roselli, of Oregon Health & Science
University, say they simply want to learn more about the basic biology of how sexuality
is processed in the brain. But reasonable debates about the importance and ethics of
such basic science seem to be drowning in waves of accusations of evil motives and
sexual eugenics.
"We've been maligned through the news media worldwide as a consequence of
people not taking the time to get the facts straight," said Stormshak. "It weighs heavily
on you. You don't like to be in a situation where you're at the forefront of something for
all the wrong reasons.”…

14. Sheep study touches off backlash
Oregonian, The (Portland, OR) - Friday, February 2, 2007
…Soon PETA began criticizing the study on its Web site. It encouraged people
to e-mail OHSU by saying the researchers "are killing homosexual sheep and
cutting open their brains" (true) and that " Roselli plans to 'cure' humans of their
homosexual tendencies next" (false).
More than 20,000 e-mails poured into OHSU, many hitting President Dr. Joe
Robertson Jr., in his first week in office. Some were hostile: "You are a worthless
animal killer and you should be shot," read one….
…"I can't stress this point enough: Basic research like ours is not about
applications. It is about discovery and building a foundation of knowledge from
which to learn more about the way the body and brain work," Roselli said. "The so-
called 'debate' about applications was invented by PETA with the express intention
of scaring people in the gay and lesbian community and causing our research to
come under unwarranted scrutiny."
Edition: Sunrise
Section: Local News
Page: A01