I wish I could find the exact quote that pops up from time to time, but it was something along the lines of "Instead of trying to explain to your kid that he chose to be gay, demonstrate it for them. Be gay for a month, go on a few same-sex dates, kiss some same-sex people, and then a month later, go back to being straight. Show him how easy it is to choose whether or not you’re gay’.
I’m sure I butchered it, but I’d like to stop googling ‘being gay is a choice’. I’m sure Amazon and youtube will have curated some interesting things for me.
Having said that, while looking for the quote, I did find one that said “Even if being gay is a choice…so what?” and, honestly, I think that’s probably one of the better replies.
I have a co-worker who’s ex-trans. Over the course of about five years, she went from being a she to a he, went on HRT, wore a binder, had her name legally changed, grew a beard, then went off the hormones, got rid of the binder, and lost the facial hair and eventually changed her name back. I haven’t asked her why she decided to detrans since I figure it’s none of my business, but she was happy as a man and she’s happy as a woman now as well, and she certainly doesn’t seem to regret anything about it.
I know this is purely anecdotal, but it’s a far cry from the horror stories righties tell where a kid gets caught playing with the wrong kind of toys and they immediately get shipped to the gender factory to have their bits chopped off and they spend the rest of their life bitter and hateful about it.
Well, for some people, it is a “choice”, and if Dr. Kinsey is to be believed it could be a choice for fully two-thirds of us. So it is not a matter of chosing what kind of person you bond with but which person you bond with. That is wherein you ultimately have no choice. It happens, not a whole lot you can do about it.
What is really troubling is that these White-Wingers seem to yearn for maximum homogenaity. They want us to all be cookie cutter. Eradicate the hippies and the [redacted] and the [redacted] and everyone else who is not how they think people should be (just read the horrific chapter 22 of The Turner Diaries). What a sad, pathetic place it would be, their Uniformitopia. It would be the literal death of humanity.
For some time now Dan Savage has had a standing offer for conservative politicians who say that gay is a choice. If one sucks his dick he will give a $10,000 donation to his favorite charity. No one has taken him up on it.
I actually wrote a whole paragraph explaining that this whole line of thinking excludes a huge middle ground of people that aren’t 100% gay or 100% straight that CAN choose. But it’s more nuanced than that as that choice isn’t the same as the ‘being gay is a choice’ choice. I wasn’t sure it was worth getting into since I don’t think the ‘being gay is a choice’ supporters are going to understand the difference between whether or not your sexual preferences (and where on that spectrum you land) is a choice vs whether or not your sexual partner is a choice.
I wonder if he’d get different results if he offered the 10k to the person instead of a charity. Though I’m not sure it would really prove anything since I think a lot of people would do that for what, to most, would be a considerable amount of money.
Also, logically, even without the money, I don’t think it really holds up since a male giving another male a blowjob doesn’t necessarily mean either of them are gay. But, I’m not sure the ‘gay is a choice’ people are going to see that distinction.
That presumes they care about detransitioning. Hurting trans people - even trans people who want to detransition - is not just a feature, it’s the entire goal.
Yeah, but try to explain that to someone that thinks you’re going to go to hell if you’re anything but 100% straight both in who you sleep with and who you want to sleep with.
Those people must be so terrified of their own private thoughts. I don’t feel sorry for them, because of the pain they inflict on others, but if they would just… lighten up, Francis! Then they might not feel so bad about themselves, and might allow others to live their lives in peace.
Or their campaign fund.* I’ve had the same thought but then, I’m cynical when it comes to politicians.
*When DesertWife and I were married, for the reception invites we put, We want presence, not presents. If you feel you must ‘do something’ make a contribution in our name to your favorite charity. As we were quite active in he Libertarian party one of our friends teased us by saying he was going to contribute to the Democratic party. I said, “If you figure the Democrats are a charity case, then go ahead.”
I remember dogma about “sinning in your heart”. Some sects go beyond mere illicit schtupping but just thinking about illicit schtupping is immoral, sinful and wrong. It is right there in Exodus 20 – several of the sins there are about things in your head (me-God!, honor your parents, fail to covet), so jehovallah is all big brothery.
I think the catholic church and maybe a few others were saying that they will accept homosexuals as long as they do not go out and get them some homosex.