Actor Cynthia Nixon recently stirred ntroversy when she clared that she had chosen to be gay.
Contents:
- WHY ARE PEOPLE GAY? GAY BY CHOICE OR IS BEG GAY GEIC?
- AM I GAY?
- CAN YOU CHOOSE TO BE GAY?
- IS IT A CHOICE TO BE GAY? IT DEPENDS ON THE MEANG OF 'IT'
- 10 ANTI-GAY MYTHS DEBUNKED
WHY ARE PEOPLE GAY? GAY BY CHOICE OR IS BEG GAY GEIC?
Why are people gay? Are they gay by choice or is beg gay geic? Are they born gay? Learn about the and reasons for beg gay. * can you decide to be gay *
There are doubtls many reasons for this, but one recurrg paranoia among many I’ve met (all of whom were men, out of tert) is that I’m gog to tell them that they’re gay. That would be classed as a very sister superpower.Bis, even if I did thk they were gay, ’s certaly not somethg I’m gog to brg up when first meetg someone, given how ’s a) irrelevant, and b) none of my damn bs.Others don’t feel the same though.
Homosexual members of society n unfortunately expect to regularly be challenged, sctised and nmned by belligerent type who are seemgly nvced that homosexualy is a “liftyle choice”.This issue has e up aga (for what is possibly the 12,456,987,332nd time) for several reasons. Also, UK prime mister David Cameron recently ma ments that suggt he nsirs homosexualy the aforementned “liftyle choice” (although this uld easily have been poorly chosen wordg). A high-profile homosexual person dog this (or pretty much anythg) is certa to get objectns om those who “don’t approve”.Debate around the thgs is evable, and so is the whole “beg gay is a choice” accatn.
As an asi, many pot out that sexualy is actually a spectm wh many possible maniftatns (eg bisexualy), but that don’t seem to be somethg nsired the “choice” argument.Firstly, what mak people thk homosexualy is a choice the first place? The mastream media has always been somewhat blunt or ham-fisted s portrayal of even heterosexual relatnships (for evince of this, see pretty much any married uple an advert), so was a long shot that they’d show homosexuals accurately.
AM I GAY?
Are you qutng your sexualy? Fd out if you’re gay, straight, bisexual, or asexual. Learn what the terms mean and if they apply to you. * can you decide to be gay *
Normally heterosexual characters sudnly displayg homosexual leangs when a boost viewg figur are need is a mon trope the days, so you n sort of see how this might make some people thk ’s a “choice”, if they lack more realistic exampl.While sayg that sexualy is set stone om birth is also not que right, the ma emphasis of those g the choice argument is that homosexuals have weighed up their optns and nscly cid “I am gog to be gay om now on”. Is choosg homosexualy jt another example of a sire to not nform, like shavg your head or wearg outlandish cloth?The trouble wh this claim is that teenage rebelln is largely temporary; hair grows back, outfs n be changed.
This seems, to put dly, unlikely.Also, as many have poted out, if sexual orientatn is a choice, then you should feasibly be able to choose to be straight aga if beg gay isn’t “workg out”. Comedian Todd Glass mak a brilliant pot his book (which is great, I got for Christmas), which is that if you genuely believe sexualy is a choice, then you’re not actually straight, you jt haven’t met anyone persuasive enough yet.But those who argue that homosexualy is a choice variably assert that is a wrong choice. But that’s te for the whole “choice” argument, so ’s oddly appropriate.Overall, if homosexualy is chosen, the most logil reason people would make such a choice is that they’re attracted to people of the same genr.
CAN YOU CHOOSE TO BE GAY?
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. That means, for example, that you n be transgenr but also straight (for stance, you might intify as a woman and feel attracted to men) or gay (e.g., if you intify as a woman and are attracted to other women).
If you have had romantic experienc or fantasi volvg people who are the same genr as you, then there is a good chance you are gay or bisexual, but 's okay if you're a ltle nfed. Gay - While this adjective has historilly scribed men who are attracted to other men, the term now is ed to refer to anyone who experienc romantic, emotnal, or physil attractn to people of the same genr. ” 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.
I say don't matter if we flew here or we swam here, matters that we are here and we are one group and let stop tryg to make a lm tt for who is nsired gay and who is not. "Blogy tells that sexual orientatn is strongly fluenced by prenatal hormonal and geic factors and there is ltle rmatn supportg the notn that tn or teractns wh peers play any substantial role, " said Jacqu Balthazart of the Universy of Liege Belgium, and thor of The Blogy of Homosexualy. " DNEWS VIDEO: SCIENTISTS PROBE FOR SMOKING GENE One landmark seri of studi on tws the early 1990s, for example, showed that if one intil tw is gay, the other has a 50 percent chance of also beg homosexual.
IS IT A CHOICE TO BE GAY? IT DEPENDS ON THE MEANG OF 'IT'
“Theoretilly, one n terpret this ndn as rultg om the same blogil factors as those that terme homosexualy but that would not have been fully active, " Balthazart said. “When people who have some media attentn say thgs about gay beg a choice really reverberat the sexual mory muny, ” said Ellen Schecter, a pyschologist Hanover, New Hampshire, who specializ sexual inty and inty.
” NEWS: Gay Teen Suicis and Bad Statistics Some say the bate shouldn’t matter outsi of the scientific world: Dpe his nvictn that sexualy is pretermed to some gree, Balthazart thks that society shouldn’t need scientific proof to rpect all typ of sexual orientatn. “The fact is, however, that the prent Wtern societi will probably show more tolerance towards gays and lbians if their orientatn is termed by prenatal blogy -- and I thk that data strongly argue that directn. If we n't help , go the thkg, we shouldn't be punished for ; and the rollary to that: if you n't choose to be gay, there's no need to stigmatize as a way to disurage people om makg the wrong angered wh Nixon's ments felt they were both unhelpful and rrect.
If Nixon feels this was her choice, so be at a mimum, is imperative to clear up the nfn between sexual attractn and sexual actn -- not bee a same-sex sexual attractn has anythg wrong wh (ed, the problem wh bracketg the moral qutn of choice is that wast an opportuny to argue that, the words of the late Frank Kameny, "gay is good"), but bee the suggtn that we chose our sexual attractns do not make sense ('s not jt wrong; 's lerally meangls). And here is equally imperative that we sist that those actns are dignified choic, not bee they're done behd closed doors or bee no one has the right to judge others' actns -- they do, jt as progrsiv rightly judge those who oppose payg tax or recyclg or treatg their children nonvlently -- but bee there's nothg wrong wh same-sex activy, and bee choosg to act a way that's nsistent wh your sexual orientatn -- gay, bi, or straight -- is a posive moral good.
10 ANTI-GAY MYTHS DEBUNKED
Viewg attractn and actn this way -- distguishg between re parts of our inti and the choic we make as to how to exprs aspects of those inti -- uld go far toward puttg to rt the ia that we n choose to be gay, or the equally false ia that if we do choose a same-sex partner, there's anythg wrong wh that choice. Chanc are if you don’t intify as lbian, gay, bisexual or trans yourself, you might thk about what you’ve seen on TV – so Queer as Folk, Orange is the New Black, or The L Word, to name a few TV hs.
Even those who do feature wh the four letters – notably bisexual and trans people – n often feel margalised by lbian and gay people, and like that they don’t really belong to such a “muny”. Ever sce born-aga sger and orange juice pchwoman Ana Bryant helped kick off the ntemporary anti-gay movement some 40 years ago, hard-le elements of the relig right have been searchg for ways to monize gay people — or, at a mimum, to fd arguments that will prevent their normalizatn society.