Just when you thought you’d heard it all…
Pink News is reporting that José Benítez, the mayor of Huarmey, Peru, is concerned that elevated levels of strontium in his town’s drinking water will lead to an increase in homosexuality. He made the bizarre and unfounded comments at the launch of a local water access project.
LGBT Asylum News quotes Benítez as saying: “Unfortunately strontium reduces male hormones and suddenly we’ll be as Tabalosos, as other towns, where the percentages are increasing of homosexuality.”
The mayor was referring to an infamous (and erroneous) 2000 Lima television report that alleged that the town of Tabalosos was inhabited by 14,000 gay men. Apparently, thanks to the new water project, Tabalosos’ tap water will flow into Huarmey’s faucets, and Benítez wanted residents to know he’d be on high alert for any apparent upsurge of Teh Gay.
For the record, Dr. Robert Castro Rodriguez, dean of the College of Pharmaceutical Chemistry of Lima, corrected Benítez’s misstatement on Peruvian radio, advising listeners that sustained strontium overdoses can lead to bone cancer, anemia and cardiovascular complications, but not homosexuality.
Memo to Mr. Mayor: there aren’t any more LGBT people now than there ever were before. We’ve just decided we’re not going to be silenced anymore.
