Queer by Choice enters the ntroversial bate of sexual inty by examg choice gay men and lbian sexual inty. Drawg on terviews wh a
Contents:
- WHY ARE PEOPLE GAY? GAY BY CHOICE OR IS BEG GAY GEIC?
- GAY BY CHOICE? THE SCIENCE OF SEXUAL INTY
- CYNTHIA NIXON: I'M GAY BY CHOICE
- QUEER BY CHOICE: LBIANS, GAY MEN, AND THE POLICS OF INTY
- "BORN THIS WAY" OR GAY BY CHOICE: DO IT MATTER?
- GAY BY CHOICE
- WHY WOULD PEOPLE 'CHOOSE' TO BE GAY?
WHY ARE PEOPLE GAY? GAY BY CHOICE OR IS BEG GAY GEIC?
Why are people gay? Are they gay by choice or is beg gay geic? Are they born gay? Learn about the and reasons for beg gay. * gay by choice *
It very much appears that same-sex sexual attractn is not a choice but actg on is; so if you fe gay as the mere prence of same-sex attractn, then om everythg we unrstand, beg gay is not a choice. If, on the other hand, you nsir someone to be gay only if they act on their same-sex attractn then beg gay n be nsired a choice pendg on an dividual's behavr.
GAY BY CHOICE? THE SCIENCE OF SEXUAL INTY
We know what Lady Gaga would say, but what if queerns isn't simply a matter of geics? What if some of choose to be gay? That's a more ntroversial qutn than should be — after all, there's nothg herently wrong wh beg gay, so shouldn't matter that some people, for reasons of their own, have opted to . Neverthels, Cynthia Nixon pissed off a huge chunk of the LGBT muny when she told The New York Tim Magaze that she choos to be gay. * gay by choice *
In 1993, a study published the journal Science showed that fai wh two homosexual brothers were very likely to have certa geic markers on a regn of the X chromosome known as Xq28. Some people might argue that if you are “geilly gay” but the thought of homosexualy nseat you, then you jt haven’t accepted the fact that you really are gay. In 1991, a study published the journal Science seemed to show that the hypothalam, which ntrols the release of sex hormon om the puary gland, gay men differs om the hypothalam straight men.
PET and MRI studi performed 2008 have shown that the two halv of the bra are more symmetril homosexual men and heterosexual women than heterosexual men and homosexual women. The studi have also revealed that nnectns the amygdalas of gay men remble those of straight women; gay women, nnectns the amygdala remble those of straight men. Today, however, we know much more about the bra than we did when homosexualy was nsired a disease that required treatment, and the amount of knowledge that we have about the bra is creasg.
If we fe beg gay as engagg homosexual behavr (the ncept of “gay” as an inty is a Wtern cultural ncept – people who have sex wh both men and women may ll themselv gay, straight or bisexual, pendg on the l of their culture or subculture), then people stop beg gay as soon as they stop engagg this behavr.
CYNTHIA NIXON: I'M GAY BY CHOICE
* gay by choice *
I believe that people have the right to engage any behavr that they choose, as long as their actns do not harm others, and I believe that gay sex and gay relatnships do not e harm to anyone. (Of urse, there are abive and unhealthy gay relatnships that should not be tolerated, jt as there are unhealthy heterosexual relatnships that should not be tolerated.
QUEER BY CHOICE: LBIANS, GAY MEN, AND THE POLICS OF INTY
If sexual preference n be altered, then people who support gay rights n’t rely on the argument that gay people should be protected om discrimatn bee gay people have no choice but to be gay – an argument that seems like an apology for homosexualy, as if homosexualy is a disease for which there is no cure. Jt as gay people who are happy as they are should not be forced to change their sexual orientatn, gay people who want to be straight should have the right to change if they n – and the rrect word is “change” – not “cure”.
Photo creds: Vanuver Gay Pri Para 2008 by edallaluna on Wikimedia Commons; DNA by ynse on Wikimedia Commons; Bra fMRI by views exprsed are those of the thor(s) and are not necsarily those of Scientific Amerin. Over the crash of the wav, he spar no tails as he scrib how much he hated the fact that he was gay, how the last thg the world he wanted to do was act on his sire to have sex wh another man.
"BORN THIS WAY" OR GAY BY CHOICE: DO IT MATTER?
One of the few people who knew that Aaron was gay showed him an article Newsweek about a group offerg “reparative therapy”—psychologil treatment for people who want to bee “ex-gay.
GAY BY CHOICE
That’s the ual terpretatn of reparative therapy—that to the extent that do anythg, leads people to reprs rather than change their natural clatns, that s claims to change sexual orientatn are an outright d perpetrated by the relig right on people who have ternalized the homophobia of Amerin society, personalized the polil such a way as to reject their own sexualy and stunt their love liv. It wasn’t a matter of ignorance—he has an advanced gree—and really wasn’t a psychopathologil thg—he rejects the ia that he’s ever suffered om ternalized homophobia. All the major psychotherapy guilds have barred their members om rearchg or practicg reparative therapy on the grounds that is herently uhil to treat somethg that is not a disease, that ntribut to opprsn by pathologizg homosexualy, and that is dangero to patients whose self-teem n only suffer when they try to change somethg about themselv that they n’t (and shouldn’t have to) change.
For if he’s not a posr, then he is a walkg challenge to the polil and scientific nsens that has emerged over the last century and a half: that sexual orientatn is born and immutable, that efforts to change are bound to fail, and that discrimatn agast gay people is therefore unjt.
WHY WOULD PEOPLE 'CHOOSE' TO BE GAY?
While scientists have found trigug blogil differenc between gay and straight people, the evince so far stops well short of provg that we are born wh a sexual orientatn that we will have for life. Even more important, some rearch shows that sexual orientatn is more fluid than we have e to thk, that people, pecially women, n and do move across ctomary sexual orientatn boundari, that there are ex-straights as well as ex-gays.