- UPDATE: April 26, 2010: 'We respect gays': Bolivian Government responds to outrage over President Evo Morales' homophobic comments.
The Associated Press says the comments were made today when Morales was addressing thousands of attendees at an environmental conference in Tiquipaya, Bolivia, although they didn't quite translate the full statement.
The AP simply says that Morales claimed that men who ate the chickens might "have problems being men" but, as captured by EFE in the original language, Morales actually said "El pollo que comemos está cargado de hormonas femeninas. Por eso, cuando los hombres comen esos pollos, tienen desviaciones en su ser como hombres"
My translation: "The chicken we eat is full of femenine hormones. That's why, when men eat those chickens, they have deviations in their beings as men" - and we all know what people mean when they say you have deviated from being a man.
And he didn't stop there. According to EFE, Morales also claimed that chicken and beef treated with hormones was also the cause for the premature development of breasts in some girls; caused premature hair-loss in men (he said that baldness had reached illness proportions in Europe and pointed at his own mane of hair as proof that locals who avoided such foods also kept their hair); and riled against Coca Cola saying that plumbers who ran out of drain opening liquids usually turned to Coca Cola as an alternative.
"Imagine the chemicals in Coca Cola," he said.
And, to finish it all off, he also said that Western medicines might cure a problem but create two new ones. OMG. My head hurts now. I better get an aspirin or two.
Related:
- Bolivian president Evo Morales blames transgenic food for homosexuality and baldness (BNO News)
- A different view: Is Evo Morales homophobic? His remarks about chicken and hormones are being twisted (TSO)
- For background on the environmental conference taking place in Bolivia, read this Roberto Lovato piece
Previously: