Originally posted by ObamaMomma
Homosexuality is a choice not a gene or a disease.
a simple choice that someone makes to be gay.
Ok, I can't sit here and read this anymore.
I am a gay male. I have been gay since my earliest memory; memory that goes beyond the point at which we begin to self-identify with our sexuality. If
I had to put a time label on it, I would say that I knew something "was up" or different by about age 6. I can assure you that, at age 6, you are
not making any life-long sexual orientation "decisions". From that age until I was approximately 11 or 12, I played a torturous internal game with
myself. A game in which I tried to convince myself that, while I found other boys my age sexually fascinating and infinitely more attractive than
girls, I was, indeed, straight. I cannot even begin to describe to you how many nights I spent awake, worried or terrified, that somebody would
figure out my "secret", inform my friends or parents, and then my entire world would come crashing down around my head - my 11 year old head. You
know? The same one that you contend "decided" to be gay? Yeah - that one.
Flash forward 5 years...years filled with seemingly unending cringing at words like fag, faggot, homo, etc, that was I subjected to in school on
almost a daily basis; not because they had any proof or really thought I was gay, but because those words were the most hurtful they could hurl at
you. To be called 'gay' or 'fag' in high school was, at the time (mid 1980's), to be sent into a special kind of social isolation - an isolation
that few dared to breach for fear of having the same labels attached to them. At a time in life when the acceptance of ones' peer group is so
paramount to a happy and contented existence, it is almost unfathomable to me that anybody can have the audacity to suggest that a socially awkward
and shunned teenager would "choose" to be gay. With the non-stop barrage of negativity, who the hell would willingly choose that? There may be a
few who would, but I can tell you with absolute certainty, that I was not one of them. Nor were most other 'tortured' gay teens I knew at the time -
one of which went on to commit suicide thanks to his "decision". It's because of events like these, that touched my life so personally and so
deeply, that I find the entire "decision" line of thought to be so utterly repugnant. While things have improved by a significant margin for gay
people in the last 20 years, you really have to ask yourself - if this were truly some sort of lifestyle "choice" or "decision", why in gods name
would anybody have made such a choice or decision 20 or more years ago, when the mere suggestion of being gay was enough to ruins lives and cause some
to kill themselves. It's a question, I suspect, most poeple who espouse the "choice" theory really haven't considered.
I could go on, at length, with the story of my coming out, my friend who committed suicide and many other stories, but it's not really germane to
this discussion. What is important, however, is that people understand what kind of consequences gays and lesbians have to deal with, thanks to this
entire "choice" theory, put forward by so many people. By positing that 'gay' is a 'choice', it opens the door for far too much unfounded
homophobia.
It's far easier and, more importantly, socially acceptable to hate or discriminate against someone for a choice than it is for a birth trait - a
trait that, in my case, I had no more input into than my blue eyes.
As a side note, after over 10 years of lurking, this is my 1st ATS post =) It's funny what finally spurs you into action, no? I guess when the topic
hits so close to home, sometimes you have no choice...
--Nyteskye
agreed, which means a man who chooses to think he is a woman ISN'T an actual woman; or that a woman who chooses to think she is a man
ISN'T an actual man.
