Czechs End Phallometric Testing For Gay Refugees
The Czech Republic has announced that they will stop hooking up gay refugee claimants to a penile plethysmograph and showing them heterosexual porn. The procedure, dubbed “phallometric testing,” which works in exactly the way it sounds, was used to czech if claimants were gay or not. The idea was that if a guy is measurably aroused by straight porn, then he’s not gay.
Say, here’s a flaw: Heterosexual porn still has guys in it. Just sayin’.
Efficacy aside, The European Agency for Fundamental Rights slammed the test in a report last month, calling it humiliating and potentially in violation of human rights clauses banning inhumane treatment. The agency suggested a slightly less novel replacement: An interview. (Don’t let the word fool you; inter-views aren’t as high tech or expensive as they sound.)
Phallometric testing, incidentally, was invented in Czechoslovakia in the early 1950s.
They must be very proud.
(Hat tip to Slap Reader Chris for the story.)
- Czech Republic defends test of gay asylum seekers despite EU criticism [Toronto Star]
- Czechs to end tests of gay asylum seekers [Sify News]
