5 Things That Cause Homosexuality (According to Weirdos and Religious Nutjobs)
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Weirdos, right-wingers and religious nutjobs have long blamed all sorts of random things for what causes homosexuality.
Here are 5 of the weirdest explanations for what causes homosexuality:
1. Soy
James Rutz, founder of Megashift Ministries and religion columnist for the bonkers conservative news site worldnetdaily.com, writes that tofu (and soy in general) “commonly leads to decrease in the size of the penis, sexual confusion and homosexuality.”
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His theory comes from the fact that “soybeans make a lot of a plant version of estrogen.” While that’s true, no studies have actually linked ingestion of “plant estrogen” to becoming gay.
2. Junk food
A 56-page self-published “study” by Rita Strakosha, “an M.P.S. degree in Clinical Psychology from Albanian University,” claims that “heavy or rich foods, fatty or fried meals, spicy dishes, citrus fruits and carbonated drinks” can cause “the return of homosexual attractions.” Fun!
The problem with Strakosha’s “study” is that it’s merely an amateurish literature review that doesn’t mention the methodology or bias of any of her sources. She just accepts each source as true, including centuries-old social critics who linked homosexuality among rich people with the high-fat and sugar diets they tended to eat.
3. Weed
In early 2017, Dr. Wesley Muhammad of the Nation of Islam (a doctor of Islamic Studies, by the way, not medicine) presented his conspiracy theory that the U.S. government introduced chemically-treated, “weaponized” marijuana into black communities as a way of “feminizing” its men.
Muhammad says the secret manhood-destroying properties of this gay-inducing marijuana partially diverts or blocks masculinization of the nervous system through use of an anti-androgen that bonds to “melanated (black) tissue,” releasing poisons into black bodies for life.
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But while that sounds super-scientific, inhaled drugs don’t work differently based on skin color. Weed won’t make you gay, but it could make you more relaxed and more responsive to touch and other sensory pleasures.
4. The United Nations
Paranoid, anti-gay “performance artist” and InfoWars host Alex Jones has called the United Nations a “space cult plotting to turn children gay.” He said:
The reason there are so many gay people now is because it’s a chemical warfare operation…. I have the government documents where they said they’re going to encourage homosexuality with chemicals so people don’t have children.
We’d love to see these “documents,” but they probably don’t exist. He also thinks juice boxes are turning kids gay, the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting was faked (a claim that resulted in the victims’ grieving parents being harassed) and that the gay-owned Washington D.C.-based Comet Ping Pong pizzeria was part of a shadowy child molestation ring involving Hillary Clinton.
5. Frozen
Though pastor and Colorado-based Generations Radio host Kevin Swanson has never seen the 2013 Disney animated film Frozen, he knows that it’s turning children gay. Here’s his reasoning:
[He and his co-host Steve Vaughn] claim that the movie’s Oscar-winning song “Let It Go” is a coming out song, marking the moment when [Princess] Elsa realizes she was “born that way” and accepts who she is. They point out that the fiercely independent Elsa never considers a male suitor and assume she is therefore probably gay. They also say that Jonathan Groff’s character has an “unnatural relationship” with his animal buddy, Sven. All these plot points, they say, open children up to homosexuality and bestiality at a young age.
You heard it here first, folks. Disney movies will make you fall in love with something of a completely different species. (Come to think of it, that’s the plot of their 1989 animated musical The Little Mermaid).
Did any about any of these ridiculous beliefs on what causes homosexuality?
This article was originally published on December 19, 2020. It has since been updated.