Comments on: Video To Sarah Palin: I Tried Choosing To Go Straight

By: 12 New Stomach-Turning Revelations About Sarah Palin « Politics or Poppycock

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 15:00:00 +0000

[...] choice, sponsoring a conference to, ahem, pray the gay away. Such conferences are widely opposed by major medical associations. But good for you Sarah, for that one gay friend you’ve got that you totally don’t [...]

By: Mark

Mark — Sat, 04 Oct 2008 21:45:44 +0000

Yes, it’s pretty ignorant to think that having homosexual feelings is a “choice.” Ask any straight person if they could choose to be gay. Go ahead. Most will laugh. Of course, acting on feelings is certainly a choice.

By: Timothy Kincaid

Timothy Kincaid — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 15:51:37 +0000

Mr. Bill,

Thank you for sharing that. I agree that much of the evangelical community no longer sees “being gay” as a choice, only behaving gay.

Ultimately, when that fully happens it is only a short time until we’ve won. Americans are a fair people, they don’t like mistreating folks for “what they can’t help”.

By: Timothy Kincaid

Timothy Kincaid — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 15:43:02 +0000

Quo,

You are right, we disagree.

I tend to follow the school of thought shared by all major mental health and medical organizations, all secural researchers (along with many religious ones), all gay organizations, and every gay person I’ve ever met in my life in thinking that orientation is not something one chooses.

You agree with 15% of lesbians in a non-scientific survey that choice may be involved.

Perhaps it was involved to some extent for those lesbians (whatever it was that they meant by “choice”) but otherwise I feel perfectly confident in stating that one does not choose one’s sexual orientation.

If you have some empirical evidence that one does choose their orientation, please provide it. Otherwise, we’re going to let this stream of discussion come to a halt.

By: MR Bill

MR Bill — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 11:17:21 +0000

The new Evangelical line on homosexuality is that orientation may be somehow innate, but you can choose not to act on it (sorta like the Catholic’s position), or at least, that’s what some of these folks I know are sayin’.
In my own life, I knew I was attracted to men, but didn’t do anything about it. The woman I would marry (a strong willed country girl)said, when I said “I think I’m bisexual” replied “Of course you are. Just don’t present me with a scandal, and keep it out of the county, and we’ll be ok.” After a few unfortunate episodes, and the birth of my daughter, I didn’t touch a guy for over 10 years, but I always wanted to.
When it became clear that my wife was in a long term affair at work (and got me to do threesomes with the dude), I met a man (a Log Cabin Republican btw) who wanted me for a mostly sexual relationship, and insisted I stay married. That ended this year, four years after my wife’s death, when he told me “we don’t have a relationship”….
I’ve come to think a lot of men’s sexuality has to develop: most bisexual men eventually end up in male only relationships. I truly felt ‘bisexual’, enjoyed the woman and making love to her, but there was always this itch for a man’s love..My current partner was the same: a thirty year old virgin (and his name is Timothy Kincade too!) who was more of less grabbed by a strong willed woman, and didn’t come to terms with wanting men till his divorce 10 years later..
I’ve met an number of men who married and then came to terms with their sexuality. The evangelical line will encourage gay men like myself to marry, with bad results. I think this might be part of the fallacy of “don’t ask don’t tell”: 18-19 year-olds might not be aware of their sexuality, or not know themselves well enough to act on it.
They set it up for failure, and then blame Teh Gay.

By: quo III

quo III — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 07:16:15 +0000

Timothy,

“We” have fairly serious disagreements over what causes homosexuality, it seems. Actually, relatively more gay women than gay men appear to regard their homosexuality as a choice (according to Simon LeVay, 15 per cent of lesbians in an Advocate poll thought choice had something to do with their sexual orientation; that’s on page 6 of Queer Science).

By: Timothy Kincaid

Timothy Kincaid — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 06:55:34 +0000

Quo,

There is also no proof that homosexuality is not caused by Gerber strained peas. Or by space aliens. Or by the Hokey Pokey (after all, that’s what it’s all about).

Yet we all know that homosexuality is not based in strained peas, flying saucers, or funny childhood dances… or choice.

By: quo III

quo III — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 21:29:43 +0000

Jim,

I wasn’t trying to say that homosexuality necessarily is a choice, only that there’s no proof that it’s not. That was LeVay’s point. There’s a longer quote from LeVay about that in the Wikipedia article on sexual orientation (or at least there was the last time I looked).

By: Bill S

Bill S — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 21:22:33 +0000

If you believe being gay is a choice, then doesn’t that mean you believe there’s an advantage to being gay? Because otherwise what would motivate that choice?

By: Yuki Choe

Yuki Choe — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 20:35:48 +0000

“For the record, there is no scientific proof that homosexuality is not a choice. The neuroscientist Simon LeVay has admitted this; see the Wikipedia article about him.”

Before you say anything, I did not choose to be transsexual either. Really, I can vouch for my fellow brothers and sisters here. Hey, why choose to be a “minority”? Gays, lesbians, transsexuals… wow. So much choice. And before you say “sexual deviation”, I had not had any sexual experience whatsoever for years. And I know a celibate gay brother. Yes, so….