Soy Not a Factor

Posted on December 17, 2006
| buzz-it! | Huff it!

One bit of internet sensationalism going around this week was prompted by this bit of pseudo-science: “Soy Is Making Kids Gay.” It has been hashed out on my (thankfully progressive) neighborhood listserve as well as quoted in the Washington Blade’s “On the Record” section.

While I am not a scientific study nor even alone a scientifically significant sample, anecdotally, I was raised on mother’s milk and only became vegetarian well after my sexual orientation was well established. Further, before becoming vegetarian, if soy was used in the family diet it was only in the vegetable oils used when animal fat was not available. Soy as protein was relatively unknown in my family.

The real harm of the article is yet another group with a political agenda unrelated to gay identity, using the specter of homosexuality to further its cause.

The science on soy is all over the map. A small portion of it can be bent to support Rutz’s conclusions. With pseudo-science, as with religion, if one starts with the desired conclusion and then looks for support in the literature, one can usually find it.

One huge bit of evidence against Rutz is that homosexuality has always existed in all cultures and even species. While being gay is a modern, cultural identity, people attracted to others of their own gender is recorded throughout human history.