The Gay Bomb

It is amazing that in this day and age anybody would think that you could create a neuro-toxic bomb that would turn soldiers gay and render them incompetent for war, but that's exactly what the Pentagon considered when they took a look at a proposed $7.5 million chemical weapon project.

CBS5.com reports :

Pentagon officials on Friday confirmed to CBS 5 that military leaders had considered, and then subsequently rejected, building the so-called "Gay Bomb."

Edward Hammond, of Berkeley's Sunshine Project, had used the Freedom of Information Act to obtain a copy of the proposal from the Air Force's Wright Laboratory in Dayton, Ohio.

As part of a military effort to develop non-lethal weapons, the proposal suggested, "One distasteful but completely non-lethal example would be strong aphrodisiacs, especially if the chemical also caused homosexual behavior."

The documents show the Air Force lab asked for $7.5 million to develop such a chemical weapon.

"The Ohio Air Force lab proposed that a bomb be developed that contained a chemical that would cause enemy soldiers to become gay, and to have their units break down because all their soldiers became irresistibly attractive to one another," Hammond said after reviewing the documents.

"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 soldiers would become gay," explained Hammond.

The 'gay bomb' project is part of a whole slew of proposals that are being considered by the Pentagon in their search for bigger and better weapons of 'non-lethal' destruction. The Sunlight Project has been on the trail of hundreds if not thousands of documents that are the evidence of this policy making. You can find a small sample of these documents, including the 'Gay Bomb' proposal (Harassing, Annoying, and "Bad Guy" Identifying Chemicals, PDF) at their site, here.

This collection contains US government information on so-called "non-lethal" biochemical weapons. It includes some notable records released to the Sunshine Project under the Freedom of Information Act. A few are infamous and have been the subject of international media coverage, including Harassing, Annoying, and "Bad Guy" Identifying Chemicals, wherein the Air Force proposed creation of what is popularly known as the "gay bomb", and The Advantages and Limitations of Calmatives as a Non-Lethal Technique, a shocking report that sent shivers down the spine of every person interested in the prohibition of chemical and biological arms. In 2004, the US Marine Corps sought to remove documents on this page. After a widely-distributed wire report about the dispute, the Marines retreated, abandoning their censorship effort.

Their site is a font of information. Unfortunately the organization is a a victim of the old static ways of the web; so you will a bit of problem finding up-to-date information.

Anyway, check them out.

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