Is It a Choice to Be Gay? It Depends on the Meang of 'It' | HuffPost Voic

Contents:

• WHY ARE PEOPLE GAY? GAY BY CHOICE OR IS BEG GAY GEIC?
• OPN I’M GAY. AND I WANT MY KID TO BE GAY, TOO.
• IT'S OK TO CHOOSE TO BE GAY
• IS IT A CHOICE TO BE GAY? IT DEPENDS ON THE MEANG OF 'IT'
• WHY I 'CHOSE' TO BE GAY
• WHAT’S WRONG WH CHOOSG TO BE GAY?WHAT’S WRONG WH CHOOSG TO BE GAY?
• THE POWER 'CHOOSG TO BE GAY'

WHY ARE PEOPLE GAY? GAY BY CHOICE OR IS BEG GAY GEIC?

Estimat as to the number of gay people the populatn range om 1--20 to 1--10, so why are some people gay?

OPN I’M GAY. AND I WANT MY KID TO BE GAY, TOO.

In other words, 5-10% of people experience same-sex sexual attractn or behavr; of urse, this don't speak to what mak people gay. No one knows for certa why any dividual is gay, but the current thought is that beg gay is not a choice.

Morn science is workg to show that geics is one of the of beg gay, although some science nflicts this area. Study of fay history reveals that homosexual men have more homosexuals their fay tree than do heterosexuals.

The precise gen volved the of beg gay have not yet been intified but they appear to e om the mother.

IT'S OK TO CHOOSE TO BE GAY

While psychologil factors may crease the likelihood that someone is gay, no sgle factor is known to e homosexualy. It very much appears that same-sex sexual attractn is not a choice but actg on is; so if you fe gay as the mere prence of same-sex attractn, then om everythg we unrstand, beg gay is not a choice. If, on the other hand, you nsir someone to be gay only if they act on their same-sex attractn then beg gay n be nsired a choice pendg on an dividual's behavr.

Whether science n ultimately prove the blogy of beg gay or not, 's important to support all adults their choic no matter how they intify. ” Many people, cludg sex rearchers and scientists, believe that sexual orientatn is like a sle wh entirely gay on one end and entirely straight on the other. Sexual inty is how you label yourself (for example, g labels such as queer, gay, lbian, straight, or bisexual).

Some people may engage same genr sexual behavr but not intify themselv as bisexual, lbian, or gay. And I want my kid to be gay, of my straight iends, even the most liberal, see this logic as warped. But was impossible to know whether he meant to sulate me om the world’s bias or implicly ratnalize his ia that no one would choose to be gay is wily held — even the gay rights movement.

IS IT A CHOICE TO BE GAY? IT DEPENDS ON THE MEANG OF 'IT'

In the early '90s, partly as a rponse to the stctive notn that gay people uld be changed, activists prsed the ia of sexualy as a fixed, nate state.

The ia that folks are "born gay" beme not only the theme of a Lady Gaga song, but the implic ratnale for gay rights. When the gay liberatn activist Frankl Kameny lnched a simple effort 1968 to proclaim that “gay is good, ” was bee, at the time, very much wasn’t.

In my hoe, though, you might expect me to say somethg about how, if my dghter were gay, she would undoubtedly face challeng and hurdl she wouldn’t enunter if she were straight.

WHY I 'CHOSE' TO BE GAY

But if my dghter wants to be an artist, I’ll enurage her all the way — and work to stroy any barriers along her path, not put them up, I’ve never for a sgle send regretted beg gay, nor saw as anythg other than an asset and a gift. By the time my dghter of age, she’ll have even more of a support work, cludg two moms, for cryg out than that, though, beg gay opened my ey to the world around me. Learng that not every gay person had as good as I did helped me realize that a lot of people general didn’t have as good as I did.

I wouldn’t be a polilly engaged human beg, let alone an activist, wrer and TV personaly, if I weren’t my dghter is gay, I don’t worry about her havg a hard life. The problem is not the ia that homosexualy uld be a choice but the ia that heterosexualy should be pulsory.

WHAT’S WRONG WH CHOOSG TO BE GAY?WHAT’S WRONG WH CHOOSG TO BE GAY?

We’ve bought every picture book featurg gay fai, even the not-very-good on, and we have most of the nontradnal-genr-role books as well — about the prcs who lik to fight dragons and the boy who lik to wear my dghter plays hoe wh her stuffed koala bears as the mom and dad, we gently remd her that they uld be a dad and dad. It’s her I ultimately re about is that she has the choice and that whatever choice she mak is enthiastilly embraced and will tell, but so far, don’t look like my 6-year-old dghter is gay.

Correctn: An earlier versn of this article rrectly stated that the Amerin Psychologil Associatn classified homosexualy as a form of mental illns until 1973. Texas Governor Rick Perry has aga ma headl for the wrong reasons when, speakg at the Commonwealth Club of California last week, he likened homosexualy to alholism. "I may have the geic dg that I'm cled to be an alholic, but I have the sire not to do that, and I look at the homosexual issue the same way.

I'm sayg that 's time for the LGBT muny to start movg beyond geic predisposn as a tool for gag mastream acceptance of gay s now, 's been the most powerful argument the LGBT arsenal: that we were “born this way. The fact that gay men are far more likely than straight men to be left hand, have olr brothers, and have female relativ that are more fertile.

THE POWER 'CHOOSG TO BE GAY'

Taken together, the arguments have led scientists to believe that for most gays and lbians, orientatn is predisposed at birth.