Friday, May 9, 2014

What if you weren't 'born this way'?



Earth is somehow still populated by people who continue to take umbridge with the idea that there are configurations of relationships other than one man and one female. Conflicts over 'gay' marriage, being openly non-heterosexual, trans or whatever else keep popping up in the news, and the most common argument I see pro-LGBT talking heads bring up is the 'born this way' argument, perhaps popularized by the song of the same title by Lady Gaga.


While clearly well-intentioned this argument is severely limited, and it should be abandoned as soon as possible. The crux of the argument is that people who are not heterosexual are literally born that way, meaning their sexual preferences (or lack thereof) are biologically hard-coded inside them, and thus cannot be changed. This argument has been popularized as a backlash to religious institutions offering 'reparative' therapy where people were instructed to essentially 'change their mind' over their sexual orientation, culminating in the hilarious notion of 'praying the gay away'. 

The scientific community currently supports the notion that sexual orientation has a very strong genetic component, and that may well be, I don't care one way or the other. I take issue with the argument's implicit statement that people are just going to have to suck it up and deal with the fact that LGBT people exist and that they're not going anywhere. But what is implicitly missing in that--in itself positive--statement is a statement whether or not it's okay to be gay. The Gaga song makes is explicit in stating that 'God makes no mistakes', and that notion needs to be brought up everytime this is discussed.

Because what if you weren't born this way? What if the science started saying that sexual orientation (or identity) is something you can choose? Would you then decide to start having a different sexual orientation? Or do we want to be arguing that it doesn't matter why we love who we love, and all relationships between consenting parties should be socially, culturally and structurally accepted? 

I understand that it's important in religious circles to push the notion that for example homosexuality is part of God's designs, but don't trap yourself with the notion that people are essentially forced into loving who they do, and would change if only they had a means to. I'm sure someone--somewhere--is working on genetic reparative treatments as I write this, wringing their hand in glee as pro-LGBT activists claim that there's no choice in who we love, rather than saying: 'I can love anyone, mind your own damn business.'

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