Ok, we were just joking before, but now we seriously do think that Indonesian politicians are competing to see who can say the crazies, most scaremongering thing possible about LGBT issues. After Defense Minister Ryamizard Ryacudu recently declared that the pro-LGBT movement was more dangerous than nuclear warfare, today we have Tangerang Mayor Arief R Wismansyah saying that feeding your baby canned milk and instant noodles might make them gay.

We wish we were joking.

Arief talked about the LGBT issue during a seminar on pregnancy at the Tangerang City Health Office on Tuesday. The seminar, titled “The First 1,000 Days of Life for Tangerang City,” was focused on the importance of providing proper nutrition for babies, especially in their first 1,000 days of life.

“To create Indonesian children that are healthy smart and competitive, the most important thing is, from the beginning, to provide them adequate nutrition, especially breastfeeding,” Arief said as quoted by Okezone.

Most scientists would strongly agree with the crucial importance of early childhood nutrition, but we’re pretty sure there isn’t a single credible scientist who would agree with what Mayor Arief went on to say. According to him, nowadays parents are so busy that they often only feed their children formula and instant foods, which can have a permanent negative effect on their child’s development.

“So, it’s no wonder that recently there are more LGBT,” he concluded.

Wow.

Now to be fair, Arief also said at the seminar that regional leaders such as himself should not discriminate against any of their citizens, even if they are deviant members of the LGBT community.

Which is a nice thing to say. Because it would be really unfair to discriminate against somebody just because their lazy parents turned them gay by feeding them formula and instant noodles as a child.

Mayor Arief’s statements are just one glaring example of the misinformation surrounding LGBT issues in Indonesia. Modern science has shown through numerous studies that homosexuality has a strong genetic component.

But if Mayor Arief has any scientific studies proving the link between drinking formula, eating instant food and being gay, we’d be happy to take a look.

Note: There is an image of a press release from the Mayor’s office circulating online which contains quotes from Arief’s talk at the session that are significantly different from those in the Okezone article we cited above. If the press release is a truly accurate representation of his speech, then it did not make the same kind of direct link between eating instant food, poor childhood nutrition and becoming LGBT that was clearly shown in the Okezone article.

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