Homosexuality III - Where does homosexuality come from?

Finally!! I am back folks. Let the parry continue!

Where does homosexuality come from? The argument of many in the gay community is that it comes from nature, while opponents say that it is learned behavior – more popularly called “choice”. The science is also very bewildering – is there a gene? Are you born that way? It is all very confusing. Most Christians are against homosexuality because it is in the bible (wait for Part IV of this series), and so they believe that it must be a choice because GOD cannot create what HE forbids. Gay people say that they are who they are and they have always been that way. Also confusing matters is the large number of individuals who were sexually abused as children. Donnie McClurkin was one of those children, and his life story was made into a documentary entitled “ The Donnie McClurkin Story: From Darkness to Light.” It is a powerful story and I encourage everybody who has not seen it to get a copy. The bottom-line of the story is this: he was raped by an uncle as a young child, and he believes that experience triggered his lifelong struggle with homosexuality. As an aside – he says he has been delivered from it, and he is much hated by the gay community as you can see here .

Both sides believe that their stance is fundamental to their argument – if it is a choice, then they are immoral people, choosing to live in sin. If it is nature, then you have to accept it, because why would you mess with nature?

Mmmmmm! To prove their case, the pro-nature group point to homosexual behavior in animals to point to its “naturalness” so to speak. Check it out

The choice group however refuses to accept that explanation – you can read a representative rebuttal here . Basically, they say that there are a lot of things that animals do that we as humans don’t do, soooooooooo……!

Further complicating matters is this issue of transgender individuals, people who believe that they are born into the wrong sex – and choose to change their gender first by crossdressing, and then later by more invasive surgical procedures. This is also happening at younger and younger ages. Interesting story here

And fascinating video from Barbara Walters below:












Exactly what is going on? Frankly, I don’t know. However, this is what I think – reducing the whole argument to nature or nurture is simplistic and misses the point in my opinion. People are born with all kinds of physical, mental and emotional conditions – Siamese twins, six toes, without legs, blind, deaf, dumb, mentally retarded, etc, etc, etc. I don’t see why logically people cannot be born with gay. The issue for me is not whether people are born with it or not. The issue is whether it should be regarded as an impairment, or as normal. For people with the conditions mentioned earlier, everybody recognizes the abnormality and attempts are made to fix them – twins are separated, extra toes removed, technologies designed to help the blind cope, etc. However, trying to infer that gay people need fixing is very politically incorrect, at least in the West, and can land you in all kinds of trouble.

Most people have heard, or made the plumbing argument – that by design, a guys appendages are designed to fit into a woman’s , errrr, “lack of appendages". (Did I put it delicately enough? LOL!). If you have appendages, you are a guy. If you lack natural accessories, you are a woman. Anything other than that is unacceptable, strange and freaky. So when a boy wants to be a girl, or wants to kiss a boy – the rest of us are taken aback because its not normal. It does not fit the design. For many, the revulsion is religious – all major religions ban same sex attraction. For others, it just ain’t right!! There is just this inner aversion to this same sex thing. Is that nature, or prejudice?

So I guess the bottom line of this long talk is this – regardless of whether you think it is nature or nurture – is it something that needs to be “fixed” or something that needs to be accepted?

I know that I am not going to resolve this argument tonight. I am just presenting both sides of this argument. Besides, homegirl is tired and needs her beauty sleep.

Next time, I will talk about Christian disapproval of the homosexuality, and the gay response. Researching that was a lot of fun let me tell you!!