Is Homosexuality a Choice as the Christians Say?
By Andy Heath
One time I was at a PFLAG meeting in Nashville, Tennessee, where there was a man whose daughter was a lesbian. The man was very accepting of his daughter, but on several occasions during that meeting he made reference to "her lesbian choice."
At the time I didn't say anything, though I probably should have. No logical human being growing up in this world would choose to be gay or lesbian. Now let me say that being gay or lesbian can be wonderful, and it can be a very rewarding life. But that fact is, as I said, that no logical human being growing up in this world would choose to be gay or lesbian.
When we are children, we see the abuse that gays and lesbians suffer. We might even contribute to that abuse by making disgusting jokes that our parents do not correct us on. We even feel better than "those people" who lead such a deviant lifestyle. We see gays picked on in school and we don't want other to associate us with them less they think we too are gay. In fact, we participate in hatred of gays so that others will accept us, tell us what a good gay joke we just told, tell us we're dead on when we talk about the horrible sin of homosexuality.
And yes, illogical as it is, Christians still insist that we choose our sexuality. Somehow they actually believe that we choose to be gay. In their minds, they know that they did not choose to be straight, but they fundamentally believe that we choose to be gay. I'm not going to go into how absolutely stupid that thought process is, but I will say that if you give it 30 seconds of crucial thought - not the Christians' specialty - you will find that there is no merit to such an argument.
Homosexuality is not a choice. In fact, it is much more than that. It is a part of who we are. It defines many of our human experiences. It defines the themes of our lives. It is a characteristic of ourselves, not a choice.
