Controversy Surrounds Czech Use of Erection-Measurement Machine
By Jan Puhl
Authorities in the Czech Republic have been using a supposed erotic lie detector to test whether asylum seekers are falsely claiming to be gay. But the practice has come in for criticism after the EU's human rights agency found out about it.
Masked police officers hustled the condemned man under the construction crane, which had a noose hanging from its hook. "God is great!" the crowd shouted as the crane operator started up the hydraulic system. The man's only crime: being gay.
In Iran, gays and lesbians can be put to death by hanging. Since 1979, the mullah-controlled regime has already executed close to 4,000 of them, usually after convicting them on rape charges.
Rahim and Karim were then subjected to a method that psychiatrist Kurt Freund first started developing in Prague in the 1950s. At the time, the technique was used as part of an effort to "cure" gay men and lesbians of their tendencies. Only after years of research did Freund realize that homosexuality is not a disease. And, partly as a result of his work, Czechoslovakia decriminalized homosexuality in 1961.
Still, Freund's invention remained: the "penile plethysmograph," a supposed erotic lie detector that measures changes in blood flow to the penis. Newer versions of these devices are even capable of measuring the reactions of female sex organs. For example, one was used on a woman from Cameroon who had also applied for asylum in Prague after claiming to have been persecuted in her home country over her sexual orientation.One at a time, Rahim and Karim were asked to sit down on a sofa in Dr. Trojan's examination room. The doctor instructed them to put a metal cuff on their penises. A cable connects an electrode in the cuff to a computer, which monitors and analyzes expansion. (The version for women uses a tampon-sized measuring device instead of a cuff.)
Trojan then showed them some pornographic films, some featuring naked men and others naked women. And the results were soon clear. Dr. Trojan declared both of them gay, and they were permitted to remain in the Czech Republic. But if nature had let them down at the wrong moment, they might have been deported.
Trojan insists that he was merely applying a method known as "demonstration therapy," which even he admits is "controversial." Although the method is not considered a criminal offence, the Czech medical association slapped Trojan with a fine of 20,000 Czech koruna (around €800 or $1,100).
Translated from the German by Christopher Sultan
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