One of the most insidious misconceptions about homosexuality is that it is a lifestyle choice, sort of like a heterosexual couple living together without being married, or choosing to live in the city instead of the country. Since I am not gay, I encounter many people who feel that they can safely express their prejudices to me, and they nearly always talk about how gay people choose to live a disgusting lifestyle, or choose to live in sin, or the like. Scientists will probably be debating the issue of how homosexuality develops for a long time to come.
In the meantime, there’s a simple question that sheds some light on the issue. When I ask the gay-bashers if they’re sure its a choice, they seem to think there’s no question about it. Then I ask them if they chose to be heterosexual and when and how they made that choice. Not one of them has ever been able to answer that his or her sexual orientation was a conscious choice.
People may have sincere concerns about how homosexuality will affect society, or the raising of children (although I am at loss to understand why marriage needs to be defended, and how forcing homosexuality underground so gay people enter into marriage on false pretenses helps to defend it.) If homosexuals do not have a choice about their orientation, however, a compassionate society must view them differently than it does if they do. With more evidence accumulating that this is the case, its high time homosexuals had the same legal protections as straight people. Call it something else if you must, but let people pass their property, give custody of their children, and share their employee benefits with whomever they choose. In the long run, homosexuality is a very simple issue. If you don’t like homosexuals, don’t become one, but find something better to do than perseculte people for being different.
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