The Aversion Project

The Aversion Project was a medical torture program in South Africa led by Dr. Aubrey Levin[1] during apartheid. The project identified gay soldiers as conscripts who used drugs in the South African Defence Forces (SADF). Victims were forced to submit to "curing" their homosexuality[1] because the SADF considered homosexuality to be "subversive".[2]

History

Between 1971 and 1989, victims were submitted to chemical castration and electric shock treatment meant to cure them of their homosexuality.[3] Electrodes were strapped to the upper arm with wires, then run through a dial calibrated from 1 to 10, varying the current. Homosexual soldiers were shown pictures of a naked man and were encouraged to fantasize, at which a point the person-in-charge would administer a shock if the soldiers showed any form of sexual response and voltage was increased throughout the treatment if the soldiers continued to exhibit sexual responses.

Levin claimed the same procedure could cure other groups. These included drug addicts (mostly men caught smoking marijuana) and the disturbed (those who did not want to serve in the apartheid military).

Project staff would force a sex change operation on those for whom the procedure failed and fake victims' birth certificates. As many as 900 homosexuals, mostly 16–24 year-old who had been drafted, were surgically turned into women and given birth certificates to fit their modified anatomy. The reassignments were often incomplete, as victims typically lacked the means to pay for the expensive hormones needed to maintain their new identities.[4]

References

  1. 1 2 "Africa | Apartheid Military Forced Gay Troops Into Sex-Change Operations". The Gully. 2000-08-25. Retrieved 2013-02-04.
  2. ↑ Kaplan, Robert M. (2004-12-16). "Treatment of homosexuality during apartheid". BMJ 329 (7480): 1415–1416. doi:10.1136/bmj.329.7480.1415. ISSN 0959-8138. PMC 535952. PMID 15604160.
  3. ↑ McGreal, Chris (28 July 2000). "Gays Tell of Mutilation by Apartheid Army". The Guardian. Retrieved 23 August 2015.
  4. ↑ "10 of the Most Evil Medical Experiments Conducted in History". Alternet.org. Retrieved 2015-08-22.

External links

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