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Homosexuality - A choice?

rudeboy

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I'm sure this has been talked about but I just signed up.

is homosexuality a choice?
 
Yes, I believe it is a set of choices one makes throughout thier lifetime to condition themselves to be a homosexual. Not much unlike being attracted to blondes, tall, or skinny folks. Equally, not unlike religion.

Oh, and welcome to Debate Politics!
 
Well, I can tell you that bisexuality is not a choice. I didn't make a choice to be attracted to anyone of the same sex, and if I made life decisions that affected this, then I was not aware of it. I can also tell you that a bisexual could simply choose not to have sexual relations with a member of the same sex (or the opposite sex for that matter) if he or she so desired.

It is my best guess that while an individual does not choose his or her sexual attractions, he or she can still decide who he or she has sex with.
 
people who don't think its a choice, do u think its genetic?
 
Welcome. and great topic by the way. I''m not sure how many people are familiar with the controlled male twin study by Bailey and Pillard in 1991? Anyone? Anyway you can read the whole thing here but I'll also summarize it, since it is rather lengthy.

1. monozygotic twins (identical twins) have a 52% concordance of homosexuality

2. dizygotic twin (fraternal twins, which is basically the same thing as siblings) have a 22% concordance of homosexuality

3. adoptive brothers have a 11% concordance of homosexuality

Since I am such a nice girl, I will also anaylize, although I'm sure everyone can do it for themselves. I you share the same genetic makeup as someone and the same upbring, there is a 50-50 chance you will be a homosexual if they are. This is anywhere from 8 to 15 times the average population's 3-6% (although by all accounts it is a conservative estimate since many homosexual are afraid to admit it).

Moving on. If your sibling that was raised with you(since dizygotic twins share the same amount of genes as siblings) is a homosexual, your chances are 4 to 7 times that of the general population.

And if your adopted brother (no genetics, just same family) is gay, than the chances are a little less than twice to a little less than 4 time that of the average person.

15 times for identicals to less than 2 times for adopted in the same family smacks of a little more than personal choices and upbringing don't ya think?
 
Welcome!

I, as a gay man, can tell you that true homosexuality is not a choice. It is something inside a person that cannot be erased by making another choice. Do heterosexuals choose to be straight? No. They are that way simply because they are. I was born gay, I have always been gay, and I will always be gay.

It is interesting that vauge believes it is conditioned. I did not condition my self to be gay no more than someone conditions themself to be straight. One of my first memories as a young boy was being attracted to a man. Do you honestly believe that a 9 year old can condition themself to be gay? Do 9 year olds have this kind of thought process? I was attracted to men before I even knew what gay was. How could I possibly condition myself to be gay then? I honestly believe that I am misunderstanding what you wrote. Could you please elaborate?
 
To those of you who think homosexuality is genetic do you think it's something we should try and cure? Do you think it's a genetic mishap like being mentally ill or depression?
 
Holy Alabama Batman! :doh

Um, no homosexuality is not a mental illness.

That's so our culture isn't? We don't understand something about a persons personality, so we say they're diseased.

By the way, most *depression* isn't a disease. It's a result of shitty diets and sedintary lifestyles. Garbage in... garbage out. Look it up. Poor diet can cause a range of mental illness.

So I guess gay people just need to eat mroe avacado. :roll:
 
alex said:
Welcome!

I, as a gay man, can tell you that true homosexuality is not a choice. It is something inside a person that cannot be erased by making another choice. Do heterosexuals choose to be straight? No. They are that way simply because they are. I was born gay, I have always been gay, and I will always be gay.

It is interesting that vauge believes it is conditioned. I did not condition my self to be gay no more than someone conditions themself to be straight. One of my first memories as a young boy was being attracted to a man. Do you honestly believe that a 9 year old can condition themself to be gay? Do 9 year olds have this kind of thought process? I was attracted to men before I even knew what gay was. How could I possibly condition myself to be gay then? I honestly believe that I am misunderstanding what you wrote. Could you please elaborate?

I think this is a good post and it's speaks to a lot of what I personally believe. I remember being very young, somewhere around 8-9 I'd guess, and I just knew I thought one of my Friends 16 yrs. sister was really attractive. I'm sure I didn't have a clue what attracted me to her. I just knew she was "hot" for the lack of a better term. I really believe deep down this must be the same thing for everyone. Just some of us have those feelings for members of the same sex as opposed the opposite sex. What's completely "natural" for one person just isn't natural for another.
 
january said:
Holy Alabama Batman! :doh

Um, no homosexuality is not a mental illness.

That's so our culture isn't? We don't understand something about a persons personality, so we say they're diseased.

I didn't say that homosexuality was a mental illness or a disease I asked if we should cure it like we cure mental illnesses and depression. I was speaking about depression that we are born with not the kind you can develop as we are talking about homosexuality that people are born with not the kind they can develop.

By developing homosexuality I mean if someone was molested or raped at a young age which can cause them to become homosexual. I believe this can happen I'm not sure if it's been proven..
 
rudeboy said:
I didn't say that homosexuality was a mental illness or a disease I asked if we should cure it like we cure mental illnesses and depression. I was speaking about depression that we are born with not the kind you can develop as we are talking about homosexuality that people are born with not the kind they can develop.

By developing homosexuality I mean if someone was molested or raped at a young age which can cause them to become homosexual. I believe this can happen I'm not sure if it's been proven..

If it's not a mental illness or disease, why do we need to cure it?
 
Pacridge said:
We don't. We need to accept people for who they are.

:applaud I'm not going to hold my breath for that one though. :mrgreen: I would advise no one else to either
 
Kelzie said:
:applaud I'm not going to hold my breath for that one though. :mrgreen: I would advise no one else to either

You're right, isn't going to happen any time soon. Which is sad. All the problems we have in this world and this is what we spend so much energy on.
 
Kelzie said:
If it's not a mental illness or disease, why do we need to cure it?

For people who didn't want to be gay? People that are depressed don't want to be depressed so they take medication for it what makes this different?
 
errrrrr....

I've never met anybody who didn't want to be gay for any other reason than the social persecution.
 
january said:
errrrrr....

I've never met anybody who didn't want to be gay for any other reason than the social persecution.


Hello,

I'm gay and I don't want to be. I want to get married and have my own children. I generally want to love women but I can't.
 
rudeboy said:
For people who didn't want to be gay? People that are depressed don't want to be depressed so they take medication for it what makes this different?

Depression is a mental illness. Depression is an unnatural state of the mind. Homosexuality is not. It is a difference in people. Kind of like some people have brown hair and some people blond. Or better yet a difference in personalites. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that a lot of people in the gay community would not want to take a magic pill that would cure them of their "gayness" (and if there are any homosexuals who disagree, my apologies). My life would be a lot easier if I wasn't so argumentative. Would I take a pill to get rid of it? No. That's who I am. We learn from our differences, not from our sameness.
 
Kelzie said:
Depression is a mental illness. Depression is an unnatural state of the mind. Homosexuality is not. It is a difference in people. Kind of like some people have brown hair and some people blond. Or better yet a difference in personalites. I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that a lot of people in the gay community would not want to take a magic pill that would cure them of their "gayness" (and if there are any homosexuals who disagree, my apologies). My life would be a lot easier if I wasn't so argumentative. Would I take a pill to get rid of it? No. That's who I am. We learn from our differences, not from our sameness.

If depression is unnatural then how come it happens naturally? Bi-polar people are born bi-polar so how is that not natural? It's not natural to social standards. Also I know a whole bunch of homosexuals who would take that pill in a heart beat.
 
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rudeboy said:
Hello,

I'm gay and I don't want to be. I want to get married and have my own children. I generally want to love women but I can't.

Why do you want to be straight? Why would you want to be attracted to another sex? I am straight and I have no desire to change that. I like liking men, and I was under the impression that gay men do too. If you are uncomfortable with the people you are sexually attracted to, it sounds like a different problem to me. One that would not be solved by taking the magic straight pill.
 
rudeboy said:
Hello,

I'm gay and I don't want to be. I want to get married and have my own children. I generally want to love women but I can't.

Well, certainly a lot of gay people do want to get married, and gay people can have their own children, through many different means. But I suppose it is possible that a gay person would want to be straight. It seems unlikely to me, though, for as I understand it, part of being gay is the desire to spend your life with someone of the same sex. It seems almost contradictory to be gay but want to spend your life with someone of the opposite sex.

Nonetheless, I see no reason not to research ways to change one's sexual attractions. Certainly if we treat homosexuality as naturally as we treat hair color, well, lots of people want to change their hair color. There's nothing wrong with that. Though I don't really see any reason that we shouldn't be researching ways to make people any sexual orientation they want, should there be a demand for changes in sexual orientation.
 
rudeboy said:
If depression is unnatural then how come it happens naturally? Bi-polar people are born bi-polar so how is that not natural? It's not natural to social standards. Also I know a whole bunch of homosexuals who would take that pill in a heart beat.

What? Every illness happens "naturally", in that a virus or a bacteria is not a man made thing. Depression is usually caused by an imbalance (ie. not normal) of chemicals in the brain. Bi-polar disorder is believed to result from genetic or other biological abnormalities.

I think you are confusing the definition of the word natural with normal. Anything that the body is without any outside interference is natural. Hence, being gay is natural. However, there are things that are not normal that should be corrected. Like depression or Bi-polar disorder.

I am sorry that the homosexuals you know are so uncomfortable with who they are. I know many that are happy and proud to be gay.
 
Kelzie said:
If you are uncomfortable with the people you are sexually attracted to it sounds like a different problem to me.


I agree and request to go back to the point of the thread.

Is homosexuality a choice?
 
So there is this whole community of people running around saying:

"HELP ME! I WANT TO LIKE BOOBIES!"

?

Do you really think that people would not want to be gay if homosexualiy was completely accepted?

And by the way, with a little social acceptance and less "cure" talk, ya'll could get the rights you're guaranteed under the constitution, and you could have a family!

As somebody who is gay and "bi-polar" I find it offensive to compare the two. I know where my attraction to women comes from. I also konw where my crazy freakout spaziod-ness comes from. Two different places.

No people aren't born bi-polar. It is something that's developed over time. I speak from personal experience on this one. When I eat healthy and excersice regularly, I'm fine. I'm cool, I'm collected. If I don't, I'm a freaking basket case. I don't recall going "manic" in nursery school. However I do recall being attracted to women in grade school.
 
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