Sexuality can't be changed like a pair of shoes

[kweerwolf]

I was sitting around bored the other day, trying to figure out how to put a turbine engine on the spoon I use to stir my coffee, when I decided for excitement that I would become homosexual for a while. I mean, what the hell, that's how people end up gay, right? They just decide they want to be gay, or some evil gay person corrupts them at a young age, and presto, change-o, they like chiffon and Cher and people of the same gender.

There will be some problems with my same-gender bender, for sure. My wife may have some concerns, although she has cut me a lot of slack on my loopiness since I snowblowed a big Valentine heart on the front lawn Feb. 14 a few years ago. My best friend will probably get a bit nervous when he sees me sizing him up for a Halston dress, although that may be simply because his legs are sturdier than a pair of fire hydrants.

The idea that people simply choose their homosexuality is one of the abiding myths about homosexuality in American culture. This bit of intellectual pestilence has profound repercussions in our politics, because it infects many with the fear that anything which increases exposure of our society to homosexuals also increases the chance that homosexuality will "spread." It makes many Americans fearful of gay teachers and gay neighbors, or high school health classes that teach students about homosexuality along with heterosexuality. It makes many of us resist equal rights for homosexuals, because such rights mean homosexuals can live next door, rent rooms, obtain loans, and - heavens, hide the kids! - live among us as equals.

There is little medical evidence, however, that homosexuals choose to be homosexual, or that exposure to homosexuality increases the likelihood that a child will develop a sexual preference for the same gender. In fact, the evidence is to the contrary, that gender preference is primarily a biological expression which typically emerges in late childhood and adolescence.

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