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I thought that among liberals its taboo to claim that being gay is a choice? So gayness isn't an innate quality that can't be discriminated against?
With respect to anything legal or rights related, I've always felt that the strict not-a-choice angle was a terrible line of reasoning. Sexuality is way too complex to be in the same category of something like race, which is definitively not-a-choice. When it comes to discrimination or marriage equality, choice or not-a-choice should've never entered the decision making process. People's rights shouldn't be tied to whether they're born some way or chose that destiny. Putting an emphasis on not-a-choice also opens the door for, say, pedophiles to claim their attraction is hard-wired --which might even be true-- and again, might at some point pose some legal issue if it's well established that sexual preference is always not-a-choice.
fwiw, I don't fear the latter scenario, it's just an example of the extreme.
Exactly. I suspect what the guy meant was that it was a choice for him to come out of the closet and not live a lie. The church would rather him just stay celibate his entire life.
I thought that among liberals its taboo to claim that being gay is a choice? So gayness isn't an innate quality that can't be discriminated against?
I suppose we are seeing here how people, on one side or the other, see things. That is, the use of the word "lifestyle" versus sexual orientation.
A diving girlfriend, my boss once, commented that her life, of scuba diving, traveling the world, shooting the heads of wild turkeys with a -15, having the nice rifles with the nice accessories, it was all a lifestyle and I would agree. That's a lifestyle.
Equally, I would say that in being gay, there are various ways of going about it. One can be out about it.....or not. One still may be gay but to the world, it may be apparent.....or not. Whether it is or not probably depends on their lifestyle.
Being gay or not is probably not something one can decide to be. Whether they wish for others to know, for the world to know, well that is something that they have to decide, it is a decision to be made.
Last edited by TamaraSavannah; 08-01-2019 at 05:50 AM..
As a straight White cisgender man, may I ask why do many LGBT people feel they are born that? I don't think I was born straight! I think it has to do with the environment you are in and the people you surround yourself with!
Let me be very clear on something. Regardless of if it is a choice or not, it shouldn't matter at all. If I choose to marry another man, which I did, I ought to have that freedom of choice.
That said, my younger self tried to have sex with women. I couldn't even have an erection with a woman. The female body digusts me.
Human sexuality is a spectrum. It is not white and black. Most people exist somewhere in the gray area. There are a few that are completely straight ot completely gay. Most of my gay friends can and have had sex with women. I happen to be all the way on the gay side. As in I can't even get aroused by a woman. Tried many times in the past.
So, what the hell do you want me to do? Be alone and never have intimacy with another human being the rest of my life?
And by the way, this is religious freedom and the church has EVERY right to do this because its against their theology.
Of course they do. Hope they don't pay taxes though. I'll bet they don't.
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This is actually what separation of church and state is really about as our founding fathers envisioned it. The government can't interfere in the practice of religion or church doctrine. It can't make a church or denomination accept the gay lifestyle or abortion for example.
And I am a fan. But I think churches need to refrain from interfering with the practice of government as well.
Here's a crazy idea, why can't it be BOTH, choice and being born that way, why must people (the super religious and the gay community) say it has to be one or the other?
Here's a crazy idea, why can't it be BOTH, choice and being born that way, why must people (the super religious and the gay community) say it has to be one or the other?
I can only speak from the point of view of my child. It is not a choice for him because he cannot choose not to like and want male people for love and sex. He can't decide it away. ANd he cannot decide to like and want female people for love and sex. He cannot decide that to happen.
But yes, trying to tell someone what motivates them, as the religious right tries to do on many fronts, is appalling.
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