being gay isnt a choice

[jestellef]

Lol, this is why it's against the law for eleven-year-olds to have sex.

[Erekhar Amnesuor]

Gay people, black people, white people, funny people, old people, young people. The operative word ispeople. When will people get tired of hating others just because the d**k that came before them told them to.

[N3bu]

black_wing_angel

Minor Inconvenience

If it was everyone would chose to be straight

This is actually not entirely true. There are people who are not naturally gay, who will themselves to be, for one reason or another. Mostly girls doing it for attention, but it still counts.

But that goes right back to the problem, they're not actually gay.

I don't know why a lot of people, especially people I know, persist with a immature school of thought , but doing gay acts does not make you gay. Touching Penises doesn't actually make you gay, despite what crude school yard logic may have taught people. Sexual attraction is what makes you gay. And that's really not something you can consciously force. It's a complex mixture of both who you are biologically and the multitude of experiences that effect how you see the world.

People want to believe they can choose a whole lot more than they actually can, for them it makes the world a lot simpler.

[takocos]

Tackle and Tickle

takocos

Conservatism

Funfax
Science STILL hasnt found a 'gay' gene

There's not a "gay gene". Humans, like most other animals, have a wide range of sexuality that exists as a spectrum, caused by a number of factors. The genetic component is not a single isolated gene, but spread out through the genome. There isn't a "gay gene" any more than there is an "IQ gene" or a "strait gene" or a "skin color gene". That isn't how genetics work. I don't understand what that is supposed to mean.

http://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=biology+and+sexual+orientation&hl=en&as_sdt=0&as_vis=1&oi=scholart&sa=X&ei=UqyfU5G-N8afqAb2koGwBw&ved=0CB0QgQMwAA

Ummm. There is a Gene that determines Skin Color. As IQ is something humans made up to determine a person intelligence there is no Gene for that, but certain Gene's do determine the probability or potential or a high or low intelligence.

Minor Inconvenience

If it was everyone would chose to be straight

Not true. People choose to be Gay or Bi it is not always born like that.

There are a SERIES of genes that control the production of melanin, because that is how genetics work. Your genes are a very small segment of DNA that control the production of proteins. A single gene acts simply as an on/off switch. There's no way that one switch could account for the VAST differences that we see in human skin tone. That's just unrealistic.

My own completely biological brother (same biological parents) is 2-3 tones darker than I am, despite us having very similar genetics. There are very, very few cases where a single gene can control anything; and normally, that would be a mutation that allows susceptibility to a disease. /Susceptability/ being the key word. Normally you would still need mutations in the other genes for the disease to take hold; the human genome has a built in redundancy to prevent those kinds of things from happening.

http://genetics.thetech.org/ask/ask288
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_skin_color
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC212702/
http://humanorigins.si.edu/evidence/genetics/skin-color

IQ is something that humans discovered; the tests are something that humans made up, and there needs to be a distinction drawn between the two. Intelligence Quotiant is the amount of potential a individual has for building synaptic connections; the genetic component of intelligence. /Component/ being the key word. You can be born with all the potential in the world and squander it smoking crack and playing angry birds, while someone born with half your potential can work their a** off, stay up every night cramming for their finals in med school, and outdo you.

http://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=genetics+and+intelligence&hl=en&as_sdt=0&as_vis=1&oi=scholart&sa=X&ei=aEylU6H-EMqGqgaF4YCACw&ved=0CB0QgQMwAA

The reason I had trouble with the OP is that I guess I overestimated people's ability to pay attention in 4th grade biology. You know how the teacher was talking when you were cutting out construction paper and gluing the As to the Ts and the Cs to the Gs? This is what she was explaining to you. DNA is a blueprint. You can't have a blueprint pulled up on a screen, take one pixel off it, and determine something as complex as race, intelligence, or sexuality. That just makes no sense. I had no idea that so many people thought that you could. There are at least 19,000 genes in a single strand of DNA. And those are /letters/, not commands. Think of how many words you can type with 26 letters. Now try to think of how many possibilities you would have if you had 19,000.

Every book that you have ever read could be easily contained in a single cell.

[Tee the Wicked]

jestellef

Do you get a medal for being straight or something? I mean, there are so many technicalities to this, If you're attracted to a member of the same sex, you're either homosexual or one of those half-assed made-up genders. Who the hell cares as long as you love the person you're with?

I'm attracted to the same sex, my spouse is the same sex, neither of us are the slightest bit homosexual. 4laugh

[Michael Noire]

who you ******** is a choice. who you choose to want to ********... that's a side effect of a long string of factors including culture and biology.

We are raised to perceive certain features as appealing, and that comes with our genetic heritage and our individual reactions to people. For example, the facial features of someone who was cruel to you or your mother as a child may repulse you in adolescence.

If homoesexuality were marketed like shonen ai or shoujoai, I seriously doubt the bulk of children growing up with that version would find fault in it. If you grew up in a society where all the people in your gender were considered hideous by you, and all the opposite sex people were considered wonderful attractive personalities, you might tend toward the heterosexual.

And yes, the exact same rules can be applied to sex with children, sex with animals (like certain prospective senators), sex with robots, sex with tree stumps, sex with sex toys, etc.

Your perception of what is attractive is the initial dynamic of sexual attraction. The perception of probability of reaching climax is the second dynamic. These two are partially genetic, and partially cultural. A person can choose to change the cultural dynamic, but that may take months or years. It is no different from nationalism or racism or patriotism. It is an aspect of your paradigm, and of the zeitgiest, or spirit of the times and worldview.

But who or what you have sex with, that is heavily immediate in terms of choice, although it is more accurate to say who you choose NOT to have sex with. It is far easier to walk away attracted than to reach climax with that which bores or repulses you, and those who cannot control their sexual impulses are what we consider sexual deviants, such as date rapists and musicians caught masturbating in public bathrooms.

The point is, while I could say you can choose to be heterosexual, or even homosexual, that's not really accurate. A homosexual person may be completely aroused by a potential heterosexual mate if that mate meets the criteria for physical and social attraction. In other words:

[Hamelia]

Bogotanian

mluck24

Why would evolution/natural selection have people be gay?

If you are gay, you won't reproduce unless you act against your 'natural tendencies.'

I could see it if our culture has shoved it down, and all of a sudden in the past 10 years really, pandora's box has opened up and everyone can come out now. So if the gene was passing in the past, it wasn't acted upon until now.

So then all the gays will be extinct, or at best a trace of society in 100 years, even more of a trace than they are now, if its not a 'choice'

Or, could Michael Sam's popularity, Jason Collins getting special mentions at the white house, college graduates getting special rewards in the form of special tassels and mentions and the popularity that gay/bi/lesbian people get in middle and high school be reasons for people to be gay?

I mean, it seems like if you want a societal boost these days, coming out is a great way to do so.

And lets say that the gay gene hypothetically hasn't been suppressed, that people who were gay in tthe past, at least some, acted on it. Would someone who is gay be willing to come out and say I am a mutated human being?

I saw someone on gaia say that homosexuality is allowed in evolution because it is a mechanism that culls off members of a species so that they don't overpopulate (thus enabling more resources to be spread around). Note that it does not occur in too many members because to many would die, but just enough so that overpopulation is avoided. I... don't know what can be said of that explanation. Or would someone defend it?

From a post that I wrote in response to that same post:

Quote:

Kin selection theory. Evolutionarily, having homosexual or bisexual members of a group benefits the group as a whole, which is why homosexuality and bisexuality shows up in non-human populations of animals. Kin selection theory is the idea in evolution that some traits are selected for in a population on the basis that, while they may not be beneficial to the individual, they are beneficial to relatives of the individual, making it more likely that the population as a whole will survive, and thereby making it more likely that the trait will persist. The benefit that homosexuality and bisexuality played is that it's not always good for every member of a population to reproduce, especially when resources are limited. Many organisms adapted such that, rather than reproducing en masse, they produce a few offspring and care for those offspring extensively, like humans. Having members of the group who simply do not reproduce frees them up to help with protecting and maintaining the group as a whole or protecting and maintaining the children of other members of the group (hence why this theory is sometimes called the "gay uncle" theory).

[jestellef]

Tee the Wicked

jestellef

Do you get a medal for being straight or something? I mean, there are so many technicalities to this, If you're attracted to a member of the same sex, you're either homosexual or one of those half-assed made-up genders. Who the hell cares as long as you love the person you're with?

I'm attracted to the same sex, my spouse is the same sex, neither of us are the slightest bit homosexual. 4laugh

We on the same page about what homosexual means?

My point was that science, art and philosophy have devoted centuries, even millenia trying to figure out why a person falls in love with this person instead of that person, and what we've discovered is about as sensible and coherent as, well, this debate.

[Riviera de la Mancha]

Conservatism

Interitum

Conservatism

Funfax
Science STILL hasnt found a 'gay' gene

And?

There is literally no evidence of people being born gay rolleyes

Sloppy reasoning. You haz it.

[Riviera de la Mancha]

Tee the Wicked

jestellef

Do you get a medal for being straight or something? I mean, there are so many technicalities to this, If you're attracted to a member of the same sex, you're either homosexual or one of those half-assed made-up genders. Who the hell cares as long as you love the person you're with?

I'm attracted to the same sex, my spouse is the same sex, neither of us are the slightest bit homosexual. 4laugh

Hurr-hurr, how clever of you.

[Tee the Wicked]

jestellef

Tee the Wicked

jestellef

Do you get a medal for being straight or something? I mean, there are so many technicalities to this, If you're attracted to a member of the same sex, you're either homosexual or one of those half-assed made-up genders. Who the hell cares as long as you love the person you're with?

I'm attracted to the same sex, my spouse is the same sex, neither of us are the slightest bit homosexual. 4laugh

We on the same page about what homosexual means?

My point was that science, art and philosophy have devoted centuries, even millenia trying to figure out why a person falls in love with this person instead of that person, and what we've discovered is about as sensible and coherent as, well, this debate.

I wasn't disagreeing with you on those points, just the part in bold. My husband and I are both men, we both are attracted to the same sex. However, neither of us are the slightest bit homosexual, because we are also attracted to the opposite sex.

It may have been unintentional, but the comment you made in bold reeks of bi-erasure and transphobia. sad

[Tamoya Kun]

Minor Inconvenience

If it was everyone would chose to be straight

Although you are very correct, Being gay is not a choice, your statement is very invalid. Yes you are born the way you are. Homosexuality can actually be discovered when the person is a toddler. But there are many gay people, who force them selves ( thus choosing) to be straight. Although, this can cause self misery, there are many gay men who go their entire lives choosing to be straight.

[Tee the Wicked]

xX-T A M O Y A-Xx

Minor Inconvenience

If it was everyone would chose to be straight

Although you are very correct, Being gay is not a choice, your statement is very invalid. Yes you are born the way you are. Homosexuality can actually be discovered when the person is a toddler. But there are many gay people, who force them selves ( thus choosing) to be straight. Although, this can cause self misery, there are many gay men who go their entire lives choosing to be straight.

You are confusing deception with choice; said gay men are not "choosing to be straight", as they are still gay and attracted to men, not women. They are "pretending to be straight" which is a form of deception. Lying to oneself and everyone else, does not make the lie true

I'm not a Christian and as such I don't believe in one's sexuality being "a factor toward salvation". Therefore, if it were a "choice" I don't know what I'd "choose", being that I'm already attracted to both men and women. Likely, I'd "choose" whoever I fell in love with.

[Tamoya Kun]

Tee the Wicked

xX-T A M O Y A-Xx

Minor Inconvenience

If it was everyone would chose to be straight

Although you are very correct, Being gay is not a choice, your statement is very invalid. Yes you are born the way you are. Homosexuality can actually be discovered when the person is a toddler. But there are many gay people, who force them selves ( thus choosing) to be straight. Although, this can cause self misery, there are many gay men who go their entire lives choosing to be straight.

You are confusing deception with choice; said gay men are not "choosing to be straight", as they are still gay and attracted to men, not women. They are "pretending to be straight" which is a form of deception. Lying to oneself and everyone else, does not make the lie true

I'm not a Christian and as such I don't believe in one's sexuality being "a factor toward salvation". Therefore, if it were a "choice" I don't know what I'd "choose", being that I'm already attracted to both men and women. Likely, I'd "choose" whoever I fell in love with.

Ahhh I see, very well stated, I resign my previous statement

[Tee the Wicked]

xX-T A M O Y A-Xx

Tee the Wicked

xX-T A M O Y A-Xx

Minor Inconvenience

If it was everyone would chose to be straight

Although you are very correct, Being gay is not a choice, your statement is very invalid. Yes you are born the way you are. Homosexuality can actually be discovered when the person is a toddler. But there are many gay people, who force them selves ( thus choosing) to be straight. Although, this can cause self misery, there are many gay men who go their entire lives choosing to be straight.

You are confusing deception with choice; said gay men are not "choosing to be straight", as they are still gay and attracted to men, not women. They are "pretending to be straight" which is a form of deception. Lying to oneself and everyone else, does not make the lie true

I'm not a Christian and as such I don't believe in one's sexuality being "a factor toward salvation". Therefore, if it were a "choice" I don't know what I'd "choose", being that I'm already attracted to both men and women. Likely, I'd "choose" whoever I fell in love with.

Ahhh I see, very well stated, I resign my previous statement

I just wanted to clarify the situation with long-term closet cases.

I apologize if I sounded bitchy(Rereading my post I feel like I did sweatdrop )