NOTE: This letter was submitted to Dr. Jonathan Collin, MD, editor of the leading alternative medical publication the Townsend Letter for Doctors & Patients (TLfDP).

November 30, 2001

ISOFLAVONE-INDUCED HOMOSEXUALITY:
 AN IDIOTIC IDEA THAT NEEDS DEBUNKING

Dear Dr. Collin:

Since you have been devoting several pages of TLfDP to the ongoing debate on soy, I feel I should call your attention to a particularly poisonous and outrageous claim made by some of the anti-soy enthusiasts. It is the claim that isoflavones cause homosexuality.

On November 25 I received an article link in an E-mail from Mr. Dick James who, with his wife and Dr. Mike Fitzpatrick, PhD, run the Soy Online Service website (www.soyonlineservice.co.nz). It was the James’ negative experiences feeding soy-based bird chow to their parrots that led to them hiring Dr. Fitzpatrick to research soy and its isoflavones. The result, as we know, was the genesis of the anti-soy movement. It should be pointed out here that isoflavones are plant constituents that are found in a wide variety of  foods and herbs (taro, millet, chickpeas, sweet potatoes, red clover, etc.) and not just soy.

The link took me to an article entitled “Soy--The Poison Seed,” a short, pithy piece by a Dr. William Wong, MD. The article enumerated the various negative findings on soy’s isoflavones--how they can adversely affect thyroid function, how they can stimulate growth in some types of tumors, etc. Towards the end of the list, Dr. Wong stated:

“Male children fed soy formulas and soy products may not ever get to like girls. Doris Rapp, MD, the world’s leading pediatric allergist, asserts that environmental and food estrogens are responsible for the increase in  male homosexuality and the worldwide reduction in male fertility.” (1)

 Dr. Wong then gave a reference to Dr. Rapp’s work entitled Is This Your Child’s World? (Bantam Books; 1996), p. 501.

In my reply to Mr. James, I pointed out the shortcomings of this view, as well as Dr. Rapp’s contention that male homosexuality was on the “increase,” as it has existed for as long as humanity itself. In his reply to me, Mr. James, incredibly, asserted that the reason why homosexuality has been around for a long time, is because isoflavones have been around for a long time. He attributed cross-dressing in Polynesian cultures to taro consumption (it should be pointed out here that cross-dressing, or transvestism, does not necessarily involve homosexual behavior). Mr. James also blamed isoflavones for Graves disease in Europe “long before soy hit Europe,” and hypothyroidism in ancient Egypt. Mr. James attributed this to “probably too much pearl millet.”

After these claims, Mr. James then let his personal religious views leak into his letter with some bizarre exegesis of the Old Testament’s statement of passing the “sins of the fathers unto the third generation,” interpreting this as a reference to “letting the grainstore get damp. Mycotoxins are more potent than isoflavones and getting a constant daily dose would do it [i.e., cause homosexuality].”

After these comments, he claimed that, “In a culture where genealogies were traced for eons it was a VERY bad sin indeed.” (2)

It took a few readings of this E-mail to finally grasp that Mr. James was actually agreeing with Dr. Wong’s and Dr. Rapp’s, view. When I searched Sally Fallon and Mary Enig’s writings on soy, I found this sentence in an article on soy infant formula and its effects by Mrs. Fallon  which seemed to echo James, Wong, and Rapp:

“It goes without saying that future patterns of sexual orientation may also be influenced by the early hormonal environment.” (3)

Despite this apparently clear-cut statement, the article only discusses possible consequences in males (based on animal studies) as late physical sexual development and learning disabilities. In a subsequent section of the same article, possible effects on females are discussed. Lesbianism is not among them.  

In a phone call to Sally Fallon on November 26, she denied that isoflavones had anything to do with homosexuality and that Mr. James’ claims were wrong. (4)

Indeed. I am no fan of soy or soy isoflavone supplements. But claims of ill effects need to be backed by science and common sense, not religious beliefs or personal views on gender and gender roles. When it comes to the claim that isoflavones are responsible for causing homosexuality, there is neither science nor common sense at work.

First, the claim made by Dr’s. Rapp and Wong that male homosexuality is “on the rise” in the world is impossible to prove. In order to prove it, you would first have to have a definite number of male homosexuals in the world counted at a definite point in time, and then compare that figure with another definite number of male homosexuals in the world counted at a later definite point in time and show that the second number had increased.

I am unaware of any global “homosexual census” undertaken by any group or individual in recent history. Perhaps Wong, Rapp, or James could point me to it?

Since there are no accurate numbers of male homosexuals to work with, the claim that there has been an “increase” in male homosexuality is impossible to prove.

Second, Dr.’s Wong and Rapp, as well as Mr. James, seem to be under the impression that male homosexuality has something to do with hormones, specifically estrogen, and consequently, that male homosexuals are trying to become (or are acting like) women and that such behavior is “unnatural” (whatever that means).

 This view would seem quite anathema to certain ancient cultures that indulged in and glorified male homosexual behavior, e.g., the Celts and the Greeks. In both of these societies (which are only two examples among many others), women were denigrated and regarded as inferior creatures. If anything, the men in these societies would most definitely NOT want to become like women. Throughout the bulk of human history, although there have certainly been effeminate homosexuals (as well as effeminate heterosexuals), one of the main reasons for male homosexual behavior was to induce “maleness” and “male loving was closely entwined with valor, heroism, bravery and manliness.” (5) One need only look at the heroic romances of Achilles and Patroclus of the Iliad, Gilgamesh and Enkidu of the Gilgamesh Epic, or even David and Jonathan of the Old Testament to know that “womanly” behavior, however defined, did not enter into the picture of these warrior’s lives.

James’, Rapp’s, and Wong’s views on homosexuality are ultimately rooted in certain beliefs about gender and gender roles that got their start around 1700. (6) Mr. James’ views seem to be a queer mix of Stoic philosophy, Scholastic theology, and Fundamentalist Christianity. While he is entitled to his religious beliefs, they have no place in an academic discussion.

Third, the claim that isoflavones have been in the human diet for eons is a dubious one indeed and is contested by none other than Dr. Fitzpatrick, the Soy Online Service webmaster. He states:

“There is no evidence of a long and safe history of use or that ‘these isoflavones components . . . have been consumed by millions of humans for over two thousand years.”  

“It is impossible to know with certainty whether Glycine soja [the wild soybean traditionally consumed in Asia] contained isoflavones.” (7)

Though Fitzpatrick’s comments are restricted to soybeans, his statements could also easily apply to other foods now known to contain isoflavones: How do we know if these foods’ predecessors were exactly the same in their constituents as their modern counterparts? In other words, despite Mr. James’ claims, there is no proof that the millet,  taro, chickpeas, etc., of yesteryear had isoflavones in them.

As a matter of fact, the Soy Industry’s claim that isoflavones have been in the human diet throughout history is one which is vehemently opposed by the Soy Critics and is one of their main arguments against isoflavones inclusion in modern people’s diets. The critics rightly ask, “How do we know if it is safe to consume high levels of isoflavones when we are not sure if humans ever consumed them at all through their evolution?” Why Mr. James and Dr. Wong seem to be diverging from their colleagues on this point is a mystery.

Fourth, the “isoflavones-cause-homosexuality” view is wrong because it does not stand the test of common sense, a useful commodity that seems to be on very short supply these days. Consider the following:

1. Mr. James claims that male homosexuality can be traced to homosexuals eating certain foods rich in isoflavones. Where is the proof of such a claim? Where are the food diaries of these people throughout history?

2. If isoflavone-rich foods cause homosexuality, then why is it that entire cultures did not turn gay? Taro and cassava root, for example, were eaten by all Polynesians as they formed staples of the diet.

3. If isoflavones in food cause male homosexuality, then what causes lesbianism? Is it because lesbians didn’t eat any foods with isoflavones, thus making them not “feminine” enough? Or perhaps they had discovered a source of foods that contained androgen-like compounds and only they ate them, resulting in them becoming more like men?

4. What is the explanation for bisexuality? Did bisexual men only eat half as many isoflavones as the gay ones, resulting in them becoming “half homosexual?”

5. In the article “Charlie’s Story,” posted on the Soy Alert! section of the Weston A. Price Foundation’s website, a young man harmed by soy formula as a baby developed “dental fluorosis, severe and chronic gastroenteritis and bone problems” as an adult--not homosexuality. (8) Why is this? Either isoflavones cause male homosexuality or they do not.

if you think this all sounds absurd, its because it is. The fact is, is that we do not know what causes the subtleties and manifestations of human sexual behavior. Injecting one’s personal and/or religious biases into this issue is taking a step back into the 18^th and 19^th centuries where it was claimed in medical textbooks that homosexuality was a mark of moral depravity and satanic influence and that it could be “cured” by castration, lobotomy, or electroshock therapy. (9)

If views like Mr. James’ and Dr. Wong’s gain a foothold in those segments of the natural health community that have a hard time grasping the reality that members of the same sex eroticize each other, it is only a matter of time before natural “cures” for “isoflavone-induced homosexuality” start popping up.

The idea that isoflavones have an effect on human sexual behavior is a bad one that needs to be cut off at the knees right now. I hope this letter accomplishes this. I am also forwarding to you Mr. James’ email that I’ve referenced in this letter so you can verify his statements as I have quoted them.

Sincerely,

Stephen Byrnes, PhD, RNCP

Notes  

1. William Wong, MD. “Soy the Poison Seed.” Posted at http://www.totalityofbeing.com/id58.htm. Accessed on November 25, 2001.

2. Richard James. E-mail correspondence dated November 26, 2001.

3. Sally Fallon. “Soy Infant Formula--Better Than Breastmilk?” Posted at http://www.westonaprice.org/soy/infant.html. Accessed on November 29, 2001.

4. Sally Fallon, personal communication, November 26, 2001.

5. Colin Spencer. Homosexuality in History. (Harcourt Brace & Company; 1995), 392-3.

6. Spencer, 403.

7. Mike Fitzpatrick. “Soy Isoflavones--Panacea or Poison?” Posted at http://www.westonaprice.org/soy/isoflavones.html. Accessed on November 28, 2001.

8. George Glasser and Anita Knight. “Charlie’s Story.” Posted at http://www.westonaprice.org. Accessed November 29, 2001.

9. Spencer, 289-321.