A mayor in Peru made some interesting claims recently about the quality of the water in his town. Huarmey Mayor Jose Benitez actually believes that the number of gay men in his town is directly connected to the water. He says that there is something toxic in the water that is causing men to turn gay.
The mayor, noting high levels of Strontium in the tap water, says that the water comes from Tabalosos, a town where there are allegedly 14,000 gay men.
“Unfortunately strontium reduces male hormones and suddenly we’ll be as Tabalosos, as other towns, where the percentages are increasing of homosexuality,” Benitez says. “Young people have low self-esteem by this stigma."
Dr. Robert Castro Rodriguez, dean of the College of Pharmaceutical Chemistry of Lima, says that Benitez is wrong. He says that strontium can lead to bone cancer, anemia and heart problems, but not homosexuality.
Bolivian President Evo Morales once blamed the injection of female hormones into chickens for the presence of homosexuality. Morales then argued "and because of that, men who consume them have problems being men.”
