WomenCo.

I'm posting this under the Anonymous Forums because it's such a touchy subject and I want you to be able to honestly post your comments.  Do you think that "homosexuals" are born homosexual or is it a choice?  My SO and I were discussing this over the weekend and while I can understand his point of view, I have to disagree.  I think homosexuals are born that way whereas my SO thinks that it is a choice that may have been "born" due to some sort of abuse, not necessarily sexual though.  What do you think?

KatS ( I dont' mind everyone knowing what my thoughts are)

It is more how your body is wired, sexually, although abuse plays a part especially in males. Many kids think they are gay before they are teens.

I believe you are born the way you are. You can't help what you love. You can't help what you are attracted to. If you strip all the politics and religion away, you have a person who loves like any one else.

I think the question was asked out of curiousity, nothing more.

Being from a Christian background, I do have a hard time understanding it and not associating it negatively. I have never been disrespectful or judgemental of a homosexual, transgender, etc. I also have a hard time believing that very young children (2-5) aren't just picking up the behaviors, "going through a phase", or being encouraged by their parents. It's hard to not believe they weren't born that way when you learn of their stories. After all, as a parent, knowing the hardships they may face in the world - WHY WOULD YOU encourage it? It's a matter of acceptance on the parent's part in such cases, not encouragement. There are studies indicating it may have to do with development in the womb, although I do believe that some cases are a result of abuse/bad exp. w/ opposite sex, etc. We have many other biological traits - why couldn't this be one? I just googled it and ended up finding out that there are homosexual animals - apparently there have been many studies indicating this. It's news to me, knocks out the "it's not natural, animals aren't homosexual" theory... Regardless of the reason or our beliefs, it's still important to treat everyone w/ kindness and respect.

Wow, if anything, some of your comments have only convinced me further of the ignorance of the religious right.

Anonymous says ...

Wow, if anything, some of your comments have only convinced me further of the ignorance of the religious right.

It's ironic that you say that because society as a whole is ignorant regarding homosexuality - not just religions! We, as a nation, are just beginning to try to understand this very complex topic!

You are born gay. Whether you discover it as a child or later on in life, it's something you are born with. Just as others are born straight. Or bi. Or even asexual (a minute portion of the population).

Check out these videos.   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g9cLK9VmLHU

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ihNJKLcBinY&feature=related

Until I see medical proof that states they are NOT born that way, that is what I choose to believe.  I also think that some people make a conscious choice.  Let's say you have been in an abusive marriage and the only comfort you can find is with someone of the same sex.  I can see how changing your preference could make your life easier and less complicated because that same sex probably understands you more than your spouse did.  I don't really care what the reason is that people are gay.  If I choose to love them that's my business and not anyone else's.

Now here's a thought.  I did a lot of underground research in the 80's when AIDS was being discovered.  Do you believe that the government released the disease to get rid of undesireables?   Think about it, when it was originally discovered AIDS was hitting the gays, the hookers and the drug users, all undesireables in some peoples eyes.  What they didn't count on was the blood transfusion issue infiltrating the straight population.  Feel free to read Elizabeth's Glaser's book In The Abscense of Angels and see how this destroyed her whole family.  I did work with her foundation before she passed away so I have a lot of feelings about homosexuals being solely responsible for this epidemic.

Anonymous says ...

Frankly, I care only that you respect others and holding your own, self identified iconic moment volunteering for the EG foundation as the ground serving and supporting the idea (or feeling) that homos are responsible for the HIV epidemic exceeds any new paradigm of rational thought. I am not aware nor do I want to, dissect in intricate detail the causation factors considered and involved with/in EG receiving the wrong blood; there are to many. The fact remains that her work raised public awareness about HIV infection in children and spurred funding for the development of pediatric AIDS drugs as well as research into mother-to-child transmission (MTCT) of HIV. (Significantly, Glaser's children received the virus through two of the most common means of mother-to-child transmission.)

And HIV is not an epidemic bound to homosexuals; it is a complex viral form tightly coupled to the human species, human nature and the human condition (the totality of experience of existing as a human; including mistakes, i.e. hospital use of contaminated blood).

And I am unfazed by your assertion that government (presumably federal and state) does not always act to each stratified community’s interest. However transfer of guilt by the offending party (allegedly the governments) to a secular stratification of ‘Homo’ sapiens strictly because they are undesirable is demonstrative of a fault in deductive reasoning.

They say each of us sees his/her "truth" limited by cultural conditions and experience, and we take our "truth" (our religion, our philosophy, our moral and ethical codes, our science, our feelings) as our absolutes, without perceiving the whole (others). No perception of whole equals destruction and ignorance.

I appreciate your comment, I think I understand what you're trying to say. But, I have to say, it's hard to follow. It's hard to pinpoint exactly what you mean by some of your statements. (I'm the one who commented "Being from a Christian background..." earlier)

I believe we are born that way. Until we understand that feeling of what we really are and who God made us, we tend to blend in witht he "NORM". I dont think it really matters, LOVE IS GENDERLESS, WHY EVEN MATTER WHO LOVES WHO, AS LONG AS WE ARE ALL HAPPY THEN LET THE TOPIC JUST BE A TOPIC

SOCIETY DOES DEFINE WHAT THE NORM IS, BUT YOUR HOUSEHOLD DEFINES IT MUCH  MUCH MORE. GROWING UP CAN FORM THE PERSON YOU TEND TO BE, BUT THAT DOES NOT FORM WHAT ONE FEELS INSIDE. YOU CAN NOT HELP WHO YOU LOVE. LOVE IS SUCH A HARD AND TENDER THING, WHICH EVERYONE NEEDS IN SOME WAY SHAPE OR FORM. TO EACH ITS OWN. IF IT WORKS FOR YOU AND GETS YOU THROUGH THE DAY THEN WHY WORRY ABOUT WHAT PEOPLE THINH? ONE SHOULD NOT. I LOVE HOMOSEXUALS AND I ESPECIALLY LOVE THE HOMOSEXUALS WHO SHOWS THEMSELFS AND DO NOT HIDE BEHIND CLOSED DOORS.

I AGREE!!

Hello everyone, this is Kat (I started this thread).  The last few responses seem kind of harsh.  I did not/would not ask someone to 'JUDGE' anyone else.  I started this thread because I was curious to know what members of this site (intelligent women, mostly - by that I mean there are a few men here too) thought about the question I asked.  I love ALL people!  I don't care where they come from, what they look like, their sexual preference(s), etc...  So, with that said I want to repeat... I never did and never would ask any of you to judge anyone else.  If you choose to, that is on you!