The Finch Formerly Known As Gold

12 June 2007

Did they say if it goes "Poof"?

The more I think about this, the sillier it sounds:

A Berkeley watchdog organization that tracks military spending said it uncovered a strange U.S. military proposal to create a hormone bomb that could purportedly turn enemy soldiers into homosexuals and make them more interested in sex than fighting.

Pentagon officials on Friday confirmed to CBS 5 [KPIX San Francisco] that military leaders had considered, and then subsquently rejected, building the so-called "Gay Bomb."

When I was in the Army, most of us were more interested in sex than fighting, and we weren't even gay. (Maybe a few exceptions: we didn't ask, and they didn't tell, and that was that.)

How would this, um, stuff work?

The notion was that a chemical that would probably be pleasant in the human body in low quantities could be identified, and by virtue of either breathing or having their skin exposed to this chemical, the notion was that soliders would become gay.

Geez. A Pentagon body spray. And, being from the Pentagon, it would probably be $900 an ounce.

Terry asks the right question: "Would it be detected by gaydar?"

Posted at 2:53 PM to Say What?


I know that this is off topic, but the Crest Foods at NW 23rd and Meridian has Pop Tarts without frosting. They only have strawberry. I didn't know if you had found any Pop Tarts without frosting since Mayfair Market closed, so I wanted to pass it along.

Posted by: Scooby214 at 4:11 PM on 12 June 2007

Methinks you underestimated the aforementioned price tag...by a considerable margin.

Posted by: unimpressed at 5:42 PM on 12 June 2007

Let's say, then, that if they packaged the mysterious substance in cans the size of a typical body spray, said cans would cost a minimum of $900. The Pentagon, of course, prefers to work in bulk quantities.

Posted by: CGHill at 5:53 PM on 12 June 2007

I seem to recall having seen this report, or one like it, a few months ago -- perhaps linked by Drudge.

Then again, it could just be deja vu all over again.

Posted by: McGehee at 8:21 PM on 12 June 2007

Yes, yes, but what if it did work? What a gas! Of course, it would be utterly useless against certain adversaries, for example England and San Francisco.

Posted by: Francis W. Porretto at 3:50 AM on 13 June 2007

No gay gas can affect my manliness, you sillies.

Posted by: Mister Snitch! at 4:46 PM on 13 June 2007