There’s no question that it’s happening. A reader writes:
Thanks for the thought-provoking article about the moral and ethical dilemmas surrounding the potential detection homosexuality, or homosexual predilection, by genetic means. Your vision of a world in which some babies are aborted for being gay is indeed frightening, but not I’m afraid that hard to imagine. Look at what’s done to fetuses diagnosed with Down Syndrome. While reports vary, some literature I’ve seen online suggests termination rates of over 90 percent for fetuses in which Down Syndrome is detected.
When I read that article, I found myself thinking about the last time I saw a child with Down’s. When first recognized, normal incidence was perhaps one in a thousand births. Here we are in 2006, after mainstreaming and an end to mandatory institutionalization, but rarely do I see a child with Down’s – just adults.
Another adds:
Clearly, if ninety percent of fetuses with Down syndrome are aborted, most of the people who claim to oppose abortion are unwilling to undergo the inconvenience, expense and – let’s face it – the public embarrassment of having a mentally disabled child. Why should we assume that it would be any different with gay fetuses? After all, where nobody really gives much thought to Down syndrome children, there is widespread antipathy towards homosexuals. Even heterosexuals who support gay rights feel something between mild unease and outright revulsion at the thought of two men having sex (just ask Mickey Kaus).
In short, we really do live in interesting times. On the one hand, we are the first generation of gay men who has had a shot at living something like a normal life; on the other, we may be the last generation of gay men to have a shot at living.
A looming gay genocide? A grim thought.
The Dish 