What If Homosexuality Is Not A Choice But Caused By A Set of Choices? And How Is Homosexuality Different From?

Question

...say blondesexuality or brunettesexuality?

2 arguments used to prove homosexuality not a choice that are ridiculous:
1. Why would anyone choose to be a social outcast?
So joining unpopular political or religious sects, or various hated-on subcultures is not a choice either I take it?
2. Do you remember when you chose?
Not every choice is made directly. Some are made by making smaller, gradual choices over time. I doubt any men into brunettes remember making that choice either, but it's possible it came out of other choices like reading a magazine with hot brunettes in it, being good friends with a brunette girl early in life. Hypothetically, there's a number of scenarios where he would've been only a little away from going the other direction and developing an attraction for blondes. Say early in puberty he likes 2 girls, 1 blonde, 1 brunette. Say in this scenario which ever he chooses to go to the prom, the opposite will hatch a devious plot, fail, and at the end leave feelings of disgust towards her and subconsciously her hair color while the other gets preferred. Putting my shoes in this scenario as the guy I could easily see myself being effected that way.

If that can happen with hair why not gender? What makes gender unique from hair? Or for that matter other factors? I'm not arguing homosexuality is wrong, just that

One good argument for homosexuality not being a choice is the number of scientific studies. However, NONE of them found 100% correlation in twin studies. This shows genetic factors, but that no gene or set of genes is purely responsible for sexual orientation.

Think about the number of things in life that would increase the odds of relating "positive" things with a person's gender. Maybe what's genetic is not the sexual orientation itself but things like whether a person tends to socialize more with one sex or another or with certain personality types and then this in turn impacts what "media" and what type of real life people the person runs into and so influences which traits they will come to identify as "desireable" during puberty.

But based on that homosexuality is essentially no different a difference than attraction to a different hair color, eye color, color of clothing a person wears, etc. since anything we are attracted to has to come from somewhere and genetics would influence the scenarios we bump into growing up that leads to this attraction.

So why are we even making a big deal out of homosexuality, bisexuality, heterosexuality, asexuality in our society when you could just as correctly make a categorization of human sexuality based on anything else including hair color and even run scientific studies and probably find genetic correlations and environmental correlations for them too? Why do we have the label "homosexuality" but not "blondesexuality"?

Answer 1

I like guys, and I can say 100% that I did not choose this. I was raised christian, and to believe that homosexuality was wrong. When I started having feelings toward the same sex, I did NOT accept myself, and tried to change. And hello? People don't kill themselves because of their "choice".. o_O



There's also physical attributes, like the finger length thing, and the hypothalamus size.

And I am transgender, and look like a girl. I have a very thin, feminine body, and have more pronounced "pecs" than most guys. This has always been the case it's not like I made a choice and altered my body accordingly..



Oh, and the twin study. Often in cases of twins, if one is gay the other will be as well.

And I remember watching a documentary about 5? siblings, all gay.



And homosexuality appears to run on my mom's side of the family. So yes, it's biological.



And I also lean to hormones in the womb being the cause; but I think there may be a gene in woman that causes the difference in hormones, because it tends to run in families..

Answer 2

'Born gay' is a misleading term. It's NOT a choice, but orientations are set by the time we are four or five and likely have biological roots. Sexual orientation, unlike gender or manual orientation, often does not make itself known until later in life, but it is likely set as early as the other two. Manual orientation is observable in the womb. Gender orientation can be posited as soon as the child can comprehend the difference between boys and girls.



Being attracted to visual characteristics, like hair color, is part of a person's "love map." Not all psychologists support the love map theory, but those that do believe it is set by the age of six.



To answer question 1: You're equating homosexuality with dereliction. When well-behaved, intelligent, dutiful teens come out about their GLBT status and are consequently beaten or thrown out of the house or commit suicide, are you equating them with kids that have antisocial, anger and drug problems?



Addendum: Outcast is a negative word, originating in ostracism. As an outcast (I've been beaten, then disowned by my parents, was bullied in school, assaulted by peers, abandoned by my birth mother, censured by Catholic schools), I understand it to mean the outcast didn't meet someone else's expectations. Perhaps, this is the 'bigotry' you sensed, too. I've been marginalized for being the wrong race, the wrong sex, the wrong sexual orientation, the wrong gender orientation, too intelligent for my sex, bespectacled, and adopted. Did I try to please all these people? To the best of my understanding, yes.



I did not show a gender preference or predilection until I hit puberty. Then, I found out that I was in no way a woman. At the same time, both men and women interested me sexually. I always identified with any protaganist (male or female) put before me, but sympathised with men more. And I watched a lot of TV. I played with my brother's toys and my Barbies,but I always preferred blue over pink and intellectual pursuits and physical activities over dress-up.

Answer 3

I just have to say, if it meant that I wouldn't have had no friends in high school, and that my mom and that whole side of the family would talk to me again, I'd "choose" to be straight in a heartbeat.



I don't know about all those studies and whatnot, but what I do know is that I've found love, and just because it's with a woman doesn't mean I should be treated any differently than a heterosexual person.



And I don't know why people make such a huge deal about it. Because they're homophobic jerks maybe? Because we're a minority, and society seems to have an issue with anyone who's "different."

Answer 4

I don't think homosexuality is based off genetics actually. I think it's based off a female's immune response to having a non-self body in her womb. I think this causes her body's endocrine system to release certain hormones/messengers that impact the fetus's development. Identical twin's have a 70% of both being gay if one is, which your right, doesn't follow Mendelian genetics. I think this 70% could come from each fetus receiving different amounts of these messenger's released by the womb or minor differences in sizes that cause different absorption rates (because although they are genetically identical, they can still have different weights).



Just thought I'd drop a different opinion since you also aren't really feeling the genetics explanation either.

Answer 5

I didn't read your whole question so I'm sorry if I missed something





Homosexuality is not a choice, it doesn't matter what happened in my early life, homosexuality can b found in genetics more so then in any other place. If it were a choice you likely wouldn't find it in animals, for example, you don't see chimps that will only mate with taller chimps.

Answer 6

lol some actually do subconciosly make a series of small decisions that leads to it and others have terrible tragedies that cause them to not trust the opposite sex however most are just innately homosexual. i kno my nephew is gonna be gay and hes 4. hes still the sweetest kid ever!! as for all the other labels why is it we need to be labeled at all? it only causes disruption in our communities and pain for those who are. i dont believe ppl should be labled in anyway black white hispanic or otherwise. its just dumb.

Answer 7

Frankly who cares? As long as the person is in a relationship with another person of age, who really cares if they like broccoli, the beach, kitty cats or redheads of the same gender?

Who cares if being gay or not is caused by nature or nurture or a bit of both, as long there wasn't any violence or undue pressure involved?

Dogs bark and birds sing, let it be, Shall we start tackling poverty, hate and diseases?

Answer 8

This may sound ignorant, but I'm not even going to bother reading that whole thing because I know for a fact that homosexuals don't choose who they love. If I had a choice, I would 100% be straight right now. BELIEVE ME! US HOMOSEXUALS KNOW HOW IT IS!

Answer 9

I AM GAY!



IT WAS NOT MY CHOICE!



My father was abusive and he once when I first realized men turned me on... As a young teen... HE put a blade to my cheek and said that he'd hurt me if I decided to be gay!

So I tried SO HARD to be straight I COULDN'T DO IT!



My doctor also confirmed it was caused by a deficiency in testosterone.



I got my degree in psychology and I SWEAR it's not a choice.