Whether or not a person is born with a sexual orientation seems to be a touchy subject. I understand why it's important to know from a biological and psychological standpoint - but it seems to go way beyond that.
I'm mostly familiar with this from media. I recently saw an episode of The Office where a gay character was offended when somebody implied being gay is a choice (the character [I]acted[/I] offended, but that's not really relevant to the topic). Why is that?
Does it have something to do with heterosexuality being/not being "standard" and thus non-hetero orientations being/notbeing considered "not-normal"?
I'm not even straight and I don't understand what the obsession is with the [I]origin[/I] of the gayness. Perhaps it's an effort to stop homosexuality on the part of those who disagree with it.
Fundamentally I think it's a defense against discrimination. If someone can say that homosexuality is a choice, then it's easier to excuse discriminatory behavior.
Because if it's something you're born with the hardcore evangelical religious nuts who kidnap and torture gay kids in the name of "curing their gay" are actually just horrible monsters like everyone keeps telling them but if they insist that it's a choice then they can justify it as something they can actually change in the person.
Which btw, this actually happens. Look up "gay conversion therapy" and just dig around a bit. This shit is really fucking shady, like to the point that in the US, these places are "camps" that are outside US territory because they're literally fucking torturing children and can't get medical licenses for this shit.
I never understood the argument "They didn't choose to be gay", you're not confronting the key point with such a statement and are implicitly agreeing that being gay is in some way bad. The argument should be that it doesn't fucking matter if someone is gay or not and even if they could choose to be gay, which they can't, it would be fine.
Thank you for your answers.
I'm not making stuff up, this argument is a touchy subject among people, right?
I think it partially has to do with the way that science is presented in the news. A lot of research into genetic correlates to psychological characteristics are a bunch of 'maybes'.
If a study finds that a specific gene is highly correlated with being gay, it doesnt really mean much to the general populace because they dont know their own genetic makeup. However, if a study finds that a certain environmental factor is heavily correlated with being gay, then you will probably see a lot of parents attempting to change that factor whether they are anti-gay or not (kind of like the autism-vaccine panic).
[QUOTE=Adelle Zhu;51965093]I'm not even straight and I don't understand what the obsession is with the [I]origin[/I] of the gayness. Perhaps it's an effort to stop homosexuality on the part of those who disagree with it.[/QUOTE]
Because if people aren't born gay it becomes a lot easier to argue that it's a choice. If someone is born gay, it cannot be their choice. That makes it very hard to blame them for it, and even harder to justify all the horrific shit done to them.
Hell. Lets go a few steps further into the loonyville and take a look at this as a supremely fucked up bit of pseudo logic. Somebody could argue that if it's not the kid's fault, it's a shortcoming of the parents. This puts the turbo devout parents of gay kids in a [i]really[/i] awkward position within their church. After all it has to be [i]somebody's[/i] fault, right? And everything must have a reason, right? But, it can't be the parent's fault. That's unacceptable. How could they be at fault when they are devout and pure in the eyes of the lord? Since someone is at fault, and it can't be the parent's, it must be the kid's fault. Yeah. That's it.
Welcome to the cycle of flagellation and blame shifting inherent in all 3 Abrahamic religions. It's little more than convoluted logic leading to bizarre consequences as a direct result of failing to accept some of the premises of reality.
The bottom line is that people frequently look for crutches to hide the fact that they are awful human beings, because reality is painful. It is emotionally easier to destroy someone and hold fast to your path of righteousness than it is to admit that you were morally or intellectually in the wrong. People are quite literally so terrified of how something they perceive as negative will reflect their standing in their social circles, that they will justify [i]anything[/i] to get rid of it, and that's not even touching on the aversion of dealing with the potential guilt.
I think it's experience
[editline]15th March 2017[/editline]
Taste like anything else
[QUOTE=thatsright;51966027]Thank you for your answers.
I'm not making stuff up, this argument is a touchy subject among people, right?[/QUOTE]
Yeah, it's pretty touchy because to a lot of homosexual people it's being thrown against them in horribly malicious ways so they're automatically usually jumping to the defensive and being offended because generally that's the reason it's being brought up. It's only a big deal because people make it a big deal, in reality whether or not it's something that you're born knowing or if you develop it later on when you sexually mature, it's not really a huge deal imo, but people turned it into one for their own agenda. basically it's a very touchy point because it's being used as a justification by people to abuse their kids.
To answer your question without derailing,
People care because gender is tied to a culture's way of life and what their religion decree, of course.
Most cultures and religions abhors homosexualities.
Which side is right/wrong is another discussion.
If we're in a society then naturally we'll be soaked in that society's way of doing things.
There's no need to pretend that we don't understand how these things goes.
They think if it's a choice then you should be able to change your preferences and banning gay activity is justified.
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