A friend of mine, John, recently alerted me to this link, which was featured in a Club Physical newsletter recently:

http://www.wnd.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=53327

Written by Jim Rutz, a founder-chairman of the Open Church Ministries (which sounds suspiciously fundy to me), it conspires that Rutz’s theory, which appears to be based on his own opinion as opposed to any form of scientific research whatsoever, is that by feeding your young, impressionable male children soy milk, you are effectively ensuring that your little boy will become a homosexual. The reason? Rutz tells us it’s because it has been proven that there are dangerous levels of estrogen contained in soy products.

“Homosexuals often argue that their homosexuality is inborn because …[they] can’t remember a time when [they weren’t]…homosexual…” stated Rutz. “ No, homosexuality is always deviant. But now many of them can truthfully say that they can’t remember a time when excess estrogen wasn’t influencing them.”

Charming. Really charming.

I have to say though, my favourite part is the post script, helpfully added by Rutz, telling all concerned parents that “Soy sauce is fine” and that “Miso, natto and tempeh are also OK, but avoid tofu”. Ha.

Apparently, the inclusion of this link was to create some discussion as the CEO, Paul Richards, was: “intrigued by this article by Jim Rutz and would be interested in…[Club Physical’s patrons] thoughts.”

Regardless of whether it was distributed in order to generate discussion or not, there’s no need to send out an article that contains such hateful lines. Besides, how do you ‘discuss’ someone’s assertions, which are  purely speculation, anyway? Did he intend to have a discussion about traces of estrogens in soy? If he did, I did a little bit of research on the internets and yes, it is true that soy does contain levels of phytoestrogens that are higher than other food products. However, according to Wikipedia (which I’m more than aware is not a peer reviewed journal but is a website I’m willing to rely on for the sole purpose of a blog entry) the: “…normal consumption of foods that contain these phytoestrogens should not provide sufficient amounts to elicit a physiological response in humans”. Soy, it seems, is a food group that people can enjoy without fear of being ‘turned gay’ after all and heterosexual males are free to go back to their tofu laden vegetarian curries without the fear that they’ll become queer.

If that was Richards intention, to discuss phytoestrogens in soy, then why not pick an article purely discussing estrogen levels in soy as opposed to selecting an article with such inflammatory statements? My guess would be to cause a stir in the media or to generate more of a public profile for his business, perhaps? After all, as they say in the industry, there’s no such thing as bad publicity…

My aversion to physical exercise aside, I don’t like the sound of this gym at all. I think it’s disgusting that a gymnasium franchise would be advocating that the consumption of soy milk is linked to homosexuality and, what’s more, considering that a good chunk of their client base would undoubtedly be a part of or supporters of the LGBT community, insinuating that soy is one of the leading ‘causes’ of homosexuality is in very poor taste. To distribute an article which labels people as ‘deviant’ because of their sexual orientation is sickening. To stand by it, though, is worse. I can’t wait to see what the CEO replies in his defence.

Ultimately this isn’t an issue about the health implications of drinking too much soy. These days, considering the amount of food labelled ‘carcinogenic’, it seems that everything is going to kill you anyway. This is about a trusted gym franchise disempowering a considerable portion of its membership and, instead of embracing its members regardless of sexual preference, decided that it was perfectly accepatble to incite a discussion on whether a milk product can ‘turn people gay’; a claim which, quite frankly, is unfounded and ridiculous.

I hate discrimination, regardless of what form it takes. No doubt you’ll see something on this absolute disgrace in Issue One of Satellite.  

- Analiese