MAGA influencer Ian Miles Cheong has been widely mocked on social media after claiming a Netherlands study proves headphones can make people gay
One of President Donald Trump’s devoted MAGA supporters has made a peculiar assertion on X, claiming that wearing headphones whilst listening to music turns you homosexual.
The MAGA influencer Ian Miles Cheong took to the social media platform on Tuesday, sharing results from a Dutch study that analysed potential toxic chemicals in 81 different models of European-manufactured headphones. The research, entitled The Sound of Contamination: A Comprehensive Analysis of Endocrine Disruptors and Hazardous Additives in Headphones, investigated the possible long-term health implications of headphone usage.
“Whilst these products do not pose an acute or ‘imminent’ danger, the cumulative and synergistic effects of chronic exposure to these chemical classes pose a long-term risk to public health,” states the study, which was obtained by the Irish Star. The research also catalogues some of the purported long-term consequences of headphone use, including cancers, reproductive complications, and chronic illnesses.
Nevertheless, it appears Cheong interpreted this to suggest that using headphones will turn you gay. “Dutch scientists: Your headphones are making you gay,” he posted. Cheong is best known for his online attention-seeking activities, for his anti-Ukraine stance, and for sucking up to Elon Musk.
“A lab in the Netherlands performed tests on numerous headphones and found them to possess endocrine-disrupting chemicals,” Cheong further alleged. “Which mimic hormones, that can cause neurodevelopmental problems and the feminization of males.”
Cheong went on to claim that products linked to Bose, Panasonic, Samsung, and certain Sennheiser headphones were “now being pulled off shelves.”
However, when the Irish Star examined the 60-page study, there was no evidence to support Cheong’s assertions.
Social media users naturally flocked to the comments section to ridicule the claims. “Just found out I’m gay because of my headphones of seven years from Ian Miles Cheong,” one person declared.
Another user mocked the numerous comments enquiring about which headphones were safe to use. “Insecure men asking which headphones are okay to use in the comments, I am DYING,” they said.
“So this is why I was eyeing the guys at the gym,” a third person quipped. The outlandish claim follows after a foreign minister for Malaysia made an equally bizarre assertion that stress is likely to turn people gay.
Religious Affairs Minister Zulkifli Hasan triggered a wave of online ridicule after suggesting that people are joining the LGBTQ community due to work-related stress. It should be noted that Hasan emphasised this was just one of several factors.
“Societal influence, sexual experiences, work stress and other personal factors come under this category [of possible causes],” Hasan declared in a written response to Siti Zailah Mohd Yusoff, a parliamentarian from the opposition Islamist party PAS. The government minister attempted to justify his position by referencing a 2017 study, “Sulaiman et al,” claiming that the combination of these elements might “contribute to the increase in LGBT acts.”
Once the information reached social media, users were swift to ridicule the politician before questioning his role within the administration. “This explains it all,” one person joked.
“Just to work fewer hours, I’ll accept and support this study,” another quipped. “By this logic, I’m genuinely shocked my entire office isn’t gay by now,” a third remarked.
A local LGBTQ advocacy organisation, Justice for Sisters, released a statement addressing the comments. “This misinformation reinforces the assumption that LGBT people’s sexual orientation and gender identity can be corrected, changed or are not real or as valid as cisgender heterosexual identities,” spokesperson Thilaga Sulathireh said in a statement.
“The fact is diversity in sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, and sex characteristics is completely natural and normal. This has been proven by medical and other bodies,” she continued. “The minister must retract and correct the misinformation.”