Morales Apologizes for Linking Gays, Genetically Modified Chickens

Bolivian president Evo Morales has apologized for comments he made last week that linked homosexuality to eating chickens pumped with female hormones in industrial agriculture.

Morales made the shocking remarks last week at a grassroots climate change conference in Cochabamba.

"The chicken we eat is full of feminine hormones and that is why when men eat these chickens they undergo deviations from their masculine being," said Morales, who also linked the diet to baldness in European men.

The comments sparked outrage from the Federation of Lesbians, Gays, Transsexuals and Bisexuals (FELGTB), the Spanish gay rights group, which sent a letter to the Bolivian embassy in Madrid to express surprise. Morales is a progressive who rose to power by allying himself with the downtrodden.

According to Merco Press, Morales replied with a letter to FELGTB to express respect for diversity, and his spokesman Ivan Canelas said, "under no way did it ever cross the mind of president Morales to attack the rights of homosexuals" when made the comments about the genetically modified chickens.

Canelas attributed the uproar to "an inadequate misinterpretation of what was said."