Watch: Anti-LGBTQ Cleric Claims That Women Enjoying Anal Sex Results in Gay Babies

The biological basis of homosexuality has been a tantalizing puzzle for serious scientists doing fact-based research, and a few clues about prenatal hormones and statistics about the slightly higher incidence of gay males with older brothers have emerged. But a Greek Orthodox priest has another explanation: He claims that if a woman enjoys anal sex, her children will turn out gay. Is it time for scientists to hang up their lab coats?

The bizarre hypothesis is being touted by a Greek Orthodox bishop named Neophytos Masouras, reports British tabloid newspaper The Sun.

According to the article, Masouras has it all figured out as follows: If a pregnant woman allows her husband to have anal sex with her (which, according to another UK newspaper, the Daily Mail, Masouras deems to be an "abnormal sex act"), the unborn fetus will somehow turn gay.

But – and here's the important part – the mysterious "gay conversion" will only happen if the woman enjoys the act.

The Daily Mail noted that according to ACCEPT – a Greek LGBTQ advocacy group – the bishop's remarks were part of a string of "spiritual meetings of dialogue."

ACCEPT posted video of the bishop's wild claims, along with the question, "How are lesbians created?"

It's not an unfamiliar question when it comes to theories about homosexuality that truck in magical thinking. As reported at EDGE in April, similarly fact-free claims regarding the origins of gay people were made by a Kuwaiti academic, Mariam Al-Sohel, who told a television talk show host that her expertise in "prophetic medicine" enabled her to solve the riddle. Her insight: Hitherto-unknown "anal worms" that devour semen "sexually attack" their victims, with the result that their libidos surge out of control and they become gay.

Sohel also claimed to have invented a cure for both gays and "butch lesbians" – pills that she creates in different colors. (One color purportedly "cures" gays and the other lesbians.)

The laughable theories hold up about as well as those floated by practitioners of so-called "conversion therapy," a sham treatment that promises to help people overcome "unwanted same-sex attraction" and transform into heterosexuals. Techniques can range from forms of torture intended to act as form an "aversion therapy" to prayer to uncertain psychological approaches that posit an array of unproven hypotheses as to why males might be gay, including a lack of paternal affection. Survivors of "conversion therapy" describe intense emotional trauma associated with having experienced the practice; some have even alleged sexual abuse by practitioners of the so-called therapy.

Some LGBTQ equality advocates view "conversion therapy" as a form of sexual violence, while reputable mental health professionals have denounced the practice as potentially harmful, especially to LGBTQ youth. But that has not prevented the anti-gay religious right from embracing it. The current vice president of the United States has a history of advocating for "conversion therapy." Meantime, 18 states and number of municipalities have barred the practice from being inflicted on minors.

Watch video of Neophytos Masouras making his claims below, in a video posted by UK newspaper The Mirror.