When Did You Choose to Be Straight?

Sorry for getting back on my gay high horse, but nothing makes me crazier than straight asshats who say that sexuality is a choice. Via Towleroad comes news that Iowa homophobe Bob Vander Plaats of The Family Leader is asking Republican presidential candidates to sign a pledge that, in part, declares that homosexuality is a choice, rather than a biological trait.

Seriously? Mr. Vander Plaats, when did you choose to be straight? Did some hot, muscular gay boy sidle up to you and ask you to "join up?" Just looking at you, I doubt it. (That was mean -- but honest). Did a smooth, tanned twink wrap his leg around yours and invite you to a gay orgy? Or maybe a drag queen fooled you into playing a game of "bend the balogna." Honestly, I doubt it.

In fact, I'm sure not a single one of those scenarios ever took place. Not only are you too creepy and dorky for any gay man to find you attractive, but you are straight. And you were born that way. Just as I was born gay. I had no "choice." Not once did I say to myself "Gee. I think I'll try being attracted to men." Sure, sexuality is fluid and plenty of folks experiment. And there's not a thing wrong with that, But I don't know a single straight man who experimented and chose gay over straight. Likewise, I don't know a single gay man who experimented with women and chose straight over gay. As I've asked many times, what sane person would deliberately choose to be a member of the single most hated minority on the planet? The argument from people like Vander Plaats is that gay people aren't sane. But since 1972, the American Psychiatric Association has said that homosexuality is NOT a mental disorder. 

Until our supposedly secular society realizes that religion and reality have no business occupying the same place in society, the LGBTQ community will continue to struggle to prove our worth as productive, valued and worthy members of society in general,. Bob Dylan may have said that "the times, they are a'changing," -- and recent events in New York prove that -- but until we can silence the ignorant rantings of the so-called 'Religious Right,' none of us can be truly equal. 

It's funny, but the older I get, the more passionate I become about this issue, despite the fact that the older I get, the less likely I am to find someone I want to marry. I suppose it just boils down to taking a stand for what I believe (and know in my heart) is right.

Another rant over. More, anon.

Prospero

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