Homosexuality: Is It a choice?

Homosexuality is, most definitely, a choice!

Is it?  That statement rolled off my tongue with a taste of bad vinegar.  Yet, I hear Christians around me saying that it is just that, a choice.  They tell me there is no absolute proof that "gay" could possibly be anything genetic.  They say this as they hold up their Bible, again, brandishing it as if it were a  holier-than-thou shield, as if  to protect them against anything that might tip the religious apple cart.

It is no secret that I take exception to using the Bible as a crutch to excuse folks from the time it would take for some of them to form an original thought.  God gave us the ability to think and to have original thought, I naturally assume we are supposed to exercise it.

I am two paragraphs into this post and realize I have probably been put back on the "damned for all eternity" list, but I'm sure not telling a homosexual that the predisposition they had for feminine mannerisms, or for wanting to be, or act like, the opposite sex at age eight, was a lifestyle choice, obviously brought on by their years of wicked experimentation.  This being the obvious reason for them to endure the taunts of classmates that would finally drive many of them to suicide.  Or, could it be because they just couldn't understand why? They, with years of life's knowledge behind them, just didn't understand, at age eight...or ten...or twelve, or now that they've managed to survive into adulthood, why.  Why they are the way they are.  Why they are different.

Well, neither did "civilized" society.  Now that we think we're close to an understanding of it, close to giving this community some grip on who they are and why they exist, up come the Bibles.

I grew up just in a small coastal town south of San Francisco.  I have been around the gay community my entire life and I've seen the gamut from flaming gay to cross dressers, transsexuals, and quiet, hardworking couples living an "alternate lifestyle."  But nothing breaks my heart more than remembering the young people that were taunted, beaten, and labeled.  The calls of faggot, queer, dike, butch,  and sissy, all still resonate.  They affect me for good reason.  God forgive me, I did my share of the taunting, and I am ashamed for it.  I was brought up better than that.  They endured it all, not because it was a choice, because they had no other choice.  It was who they were, what they were.

I was saved from myself by a young Asian kid I knew in high school.  He just wanted my friendship.  He was blatantly effeminate, bordering on being flaming gay, although I'm still not sure he really understood.  He was just a kid that wanted to have a friend.  I didn't give him much recognition publicly, but I would walk with him on our way home occasionally.  I think he liked that because my being there would diminish the taunting for a bit.  I don't know what became of him.  I hope he survived it, survived his life if you will.  He wanted, so very much, to belong.

For this post I originally brought together pages of research and articles, excerpts and arguments, all to throw against the raised shields that would condemn me.  Like the irresistible force against the immovable objects.  As all the pages are spread out around me, I have to ask, to what end?  If science turns out to be right, then the Bible is wrong.  However, if the Bible is right, then these are either all sinners, or they are aberrations of nature and an affront to a God that does not make mistakes.  Uh, oh.

Now we're back to my favorite premise, "My God does not make mistakes."  Everything is planned.  Everything is written.  Everything is God's will.  Choice?

Either way, orthodox Christianity will not readily lower their shield, if ever.  They take the Bible as God's word on Earth, and God does not make mistakes, men do.  I fervently believe they are right.

Oh, I'm sorry.  Again I have to ask, who physically wrote the pages of stories and then gathered those pages together into the Bible?

And that, somehow, brings me back to the children.  The innocent children that would be damned for the feeling they cannot explain, or find a friend or family, until recently, willing to help them work through it, regardless of outcome.

For some people it is a matter of choice, no doubt.  there will always be a segment of society trying to be something they are not.  For others, I think science is still working on it, but they're getting closer to answers.  I don't think the answers will be for our benefit as much as for theirs.  The answer for the "why" in their life.

I still firmly believe science doesn't disprove God in as much as it validates the glory and magnificence of God, and it is just our stories that need another bit of re-write.

Of course, this is just my opinion.