The Straight Goods on Homosexuality

SEX - Do homosexuals have a choice?

1.

Some people think homosexuality is a disease, a mental illness, that they're born with it, social conditioning or whatever. I personally favour social conditioning, but it doesn't really matter. The topic at hand is whether gay people have a choice about being gay or not.

Which is completely false. Its not a choice. What they do have a choice about is whether they come out of the closet or not.

2.

Some people also like to compare homophobia to racism or sexism, and likewise the idea of choice comes into play. People don't have a choice about whether they are born female or male. People don't have a choice whether they are born European, African, Arab, Indian, Asian or whatever. So why do people think we have a choice about whether we're born straight, gay or bisexual?

The answer is we don't have a choice. We are the way we are, so why should we treat people differently based on their race, sex or sexuality?

3.

Some people think homosexuality is like a fetish, like people with a foot fetish or a fetish for cross-dressing. They also seem to think gays are "automatically" into things that are more feminine in nature, such as crossdressing, talking in a falsetto voice, art, painting, music, etc. "Oh, you're gay, so must be artsy." Or the reverse: "Oh, you're an artist so you must be gay."

Stereotypes. Utterly false stereotypes.

4.

People assume that lesbians likewise have a choice and will hop into bed with the first guy who manages to "straighten them out" sexually. That somehow a penis is the cure to a lesbianism. There's also a belief that bisexual women are sluts and more common than lesbians. That lesbians are somehow on a sliding scale along with bisexuals. That lesbianism is just a fad and they just need a "real man".

Stereotypes. Utterly false stereotypes.

5.

Will the United States ever have a gay or lesbian president? Its possible. In the next 50 years we could see a huge change in how homosexuality is treated in America. Homosexual marriages are becoming legal across the world (ie. South Africa, Canada), gay rights are growing and its in theory just a matter of time before homosexuality is considered at least accepted by the wide majority.

At which point people won't just have a choice, they'll have a vote.

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NOTES:

1. As a straight man I couldn't give a hoot whether people are gay or not. Don't give a damn one way or another. If they want to come out of the closet, their choice. If they want to get married, their choice. If they want to adopt, their choice. If they want to get a divorce, their choice again. Whatever makes them happy.

2. Some people out there like to control what other people do sexually. Trying to prevent them from getting married by passing laws against gay marriages is just a matter of trying to control other people's love/sex lives. Could you imagine if we lived in a country where the Catholic Church monitored our sex/love lives?

3. When one country or region allows more freedom to homosexuals nearby regions try to follow suit. If they DO NOT what you see is an exodus of gays towards the place with more freedom. Take cities and countryside for example. Gay communities don't exist in the countryside, but instead congregate in cities. The cities that are more welcoming to gays (ie. San Francisco, New York, Toronto) see a stronger influx.