Once again, I don't get either side of this argument. If you believe that homosexual behavior is a sin, you aren't going to choose to engage in it, even if you believe that choice is possible. If you believe that homosexual behavior isn't a sin, the question of whether it's a choice is just an irrelevent philosophical debate about free will vs. determinism.
@5, but the point is they behave in a lot of behaviors that are sins (98% premarital sex rate among heteros, eating shellfish, not killing your kids when they disobey you, wearing mixed fibers) but they don't put up booths against poly-cotton blends or not beating your kids and harass innocent bystanders just trying to purchase gas.
@5 - But if it really is a sin and a blight on society and hastening the destruction of the world by the hand of god, blah blah blah, think of the greater good that could be done by proving once and for all that it is a choice. Surely God would reserve a place in Heaven for a prophet who is willing to risk his own eternal soul to deliver millions of others from Hell.
I always say something like, "OK, when did you make the decision NOT to suck cock? I mean if loving cock is an instinctive impulse that all men have, when did you decide not to partake and go for pussy instead?" I can tell you as a straight woman, I have NEVER met another woman about whom I thought, "MMMmm, damn; I'd like to eat her out!" Not . . . one. And I've never fallen in love with a woman, but I have with several men, and I've definitely seen about a million cute guys whose dicks I'd like to ride. It's not a choice. It's an orientation.
Ha ha ha! I think if many, many more men were to make this sort of response to that sort of homophobic batshittery, it'd start to shut the mofo's up.
Wonder if something similar would have the same sort of impact if a woman came up to me snivelling about the evils of homosexuality. (Except I've never had that happen, hmm...)
I love the idea of saying something to a bigot that will make their face go red & scrunchie & steam come out of their ears, but the "choice" argument is surely redundant. Homosexuality isn't a choice (although coming out is a very positive choice), but even if it were, so fucking what? There are many things that are choices that are legal, even protected by law. By answering the choice argument on their terms we are allowing the bigots to determine the rhetoric used in the argument. Homosexuality should be tolerated, embraced, protected by legislation, just as heterosexuality is, no questions asked.
Having said that, if I am ever faced with a bigot telling me that homosexuality is a choice, I will happily unzip & tell him what part of my body he can choose to wrap his choice around, just to see the look on his face.
I don't know if this story helps but it's true. When I was a child we used to go to the public pool. I loved the locker room because I couldn't believe how lucky I was that I got to see all those naked men. I thought they were the most beautiful things I had ever seen. I had never heard about homosexuality or even sex. But I knew what I liked. And it seemed so natural, like that's who I was. So when the fanatics lie and bear false witness, you can say you know someone who thought men were hot before he even reached puberty.
@14 -- Yes, I agree; homosexuality and bisexuality should be legal and okay even if they're chosen. But many LGBTQ people have tried very hard to be straight and failed, and it'll galling to those people to have someone tell them it's a choice when they tried with all their might to choose to be straight ... and it still didn't work.
It's wonderful that some LGBTQ people today DON'T try to be straight first. One does violence to one's psyche with that maneuver. But I think even in this day and age, most LGBTQ people do try to be straight first, because it's an easier life. Of course, coming out as queer gave me things that I wouldn't pass up, now that I know about them. But I didn't know I was going to get them when I made the decision to accept my queerness.
@5 - In fact, this should be a rite of passage for all young Christians. Before becoming a full-fledged member of the church, young Christians should have to spend a year as a gay person and then switch right back, just to demonstrate how easy it is to choose a life of sin or whatever. It'd be like rumspringa. We could call it rumpspringa or something.
It's not quite clear: was the gas station owner a fan of these people? Sometimes idiots will solicit outside gas stations without permission, and it's not the gas station's fault.
@8: They don't think the last three are sins, despite them being commanded in the OT. They typically make up some excuse like that those only applied to Hebrew civil society or that god changed his mind when he came to earth or something. And they definitely do fight against premarital sex in various ways.
I was a straight little girl from the beginning. I remember having crushes on boys from the at least the age of 7 and probably earlier. I was brought up in a church-going family (although I found out in my late teens that my parents just thought the tradition was appropriate for children, and they liked singing in the choir - [yes, I too grew up in the era when broadway musicals were a family pastime not just a gay pastime] - but nobody in my family goes to church now).
As an adolescent I got heavily involved in a Christian youth group, which I thought would please my parents but they were surprisingly unenthusiastic.
Out of curiosity, I asked my "youth pastors" about things like the role of women and if homosexuality was a sin. This was a United church (we even had a female minister!). The answers I got, from the smartest one, were that, although men are given power over women, by god, good men use that power to grant their wife equal rights in a marriage. Ta-da! And yes, homosexuality is a sin.
2 things happened after that: first of all, lit. nerd that I was, I decided to read the bible, front to back, and (and this will date me, for sure) I saw the movie "Philedalphia". The bible was horrifying. Enough said. The movie was absolutely beautiful to my 14-yr old mind (ok, I had a huge crush on Antonio Banderas and Tom was cute too) and it made me decide that love is beautiful, and should never be undermined by someone's narrow idea of what it should be. Tom & Antonio, and the Neil Young title song...wow! the romantic in me quit religion right then and there, for many reasons, but that one the most powerfully.
Ironically now I've lost my faith in "soulmate" love (in favour of the realistic thing) but the logic of what I realized at age 14 about sexual orientation has remained true.
Choicers are so wrong. And so tangled up in their own anxiety! They all need a slap. Go read some books! Watch some movies! Do some travelling! Get your head out of it's own miserable mush! Enjoy the world around you! Try something new, if it doesn't turn you into a quivering jellyfish of fear! Yeesh.
Hey, Dan + everyone? Before you jump on this bandwagon, I implore you to think on the unintended consequences:
They might actually suck your dick.
And us gay guys know that there is indeed such a thing as a bad blowjob. (I don't think straight guys know this, but it's not a secret.)
Although putting up w/ one of these loons on the end of your cock for a few minutes might be considered "losing the battle to win the war". I'm not trying to stop anyone, I just want people to think this cunning plan all the way through.
Not that I don't applaud confronting and confounding bigots, but I think focusing on whether or not it's a "choice" is kind of missing the point. People ought to be free to make that choice even if it were one, which it isn't... mostly. Either way it's nobody else's business.
But I'm a scientist, you know? And very little about humans is really completely biologically deterministic. Saying that people are born gay and there is no way to influence that during development opens us up to counterattack if the facts don't bear that out, and they won't bear that out 100% of the time because real life is complicated.
I imagine the religious solicitor had not yet been noticed by the gas station staff, and all of a sudden an angry mother of three and a dear old granny burst in and inform the clerk that a man outside just asked another man to get on his knees and fillate him right there by the pumps! He even started to unzip his pants!!
This is probably the only part that a bystander would notice.
While I agree with Adam's sentiment and anger, making a public scene isn't always the classiest thing to do. Adam's immediate "get the fuck away from me!" from the get go seemed needlessly crass to me, and I curse like a sailor.
@35 - I scrub off the algae for such occasions. And thanks for the mental image, I have now done more research on crocodile penises than I ever thought I would. That is to say I googled "crocodile penis" and clicked on the first academic-looking link.
Anyway, I've also thought it would be easier to just declare gay a religion and even get tax breaks on my bar tab. Rumpspringa will definitely be part of the religion, in case anyone asks.
People who claim homosexuality is a choice are really saying their religious beliefs are the only thing holding them back from acting on their own same sex attractions.
@33 - So wait - you CHOOSE not to engage in homosexual behavior? That implies that you want to, but you choose not to, right? Otherwise, there's not much of a choice involved.
Goes to show you, inside every gay hater is probably a homo.
@26: I assure you, most straight guys know about bad blow jobs. We may not CARE, but we know. And, unlike homosexuality, I believe they're both a choice and a sin. Maybe I'll spend an upcoming weekend downtown, handing out flyers and railing against their very existence.
I just don't see the logic behind this line of argument. Surely, if I was an anti-gay bigot, I'd just reply to your "suck my dick then!" with a: "but homosexuality is a sin. Why would I choose to suck your dick?"
We gays have many good points of reason against the bigotry, but this is not one of them. If a religious evangelist believes it's a choice, then he/she would only feel more righteous for having chosen not to suck dick. It's no surprise that shitbrains was stunned and had nothing to say; your logic makes no sense.
@23: Not if the staff at the gas station didn't know they were there. Or maybe the staff were minimum wage employees who didn't know what to do and didn't want to risk a confrontation. Gas stations are well known for hosting all sorts of unsavory solicitors without permission.
@ 48, I don't believe this is intended to be a logical argument. If it's anything more than a novel way to say "fuck off" to these people, then it's a shock tactic. And if it catches on, I would expect them to eventually be ready to expect it and probably counter it with a line like yours. But until then...
@51, I think it could be a logical argument, if phrased the correct way. Of course a biblethumper can't engage in gay acts since they believe it's a sin, but ask "So if it weren't for your religeous beliefs, you would go down on me right now?"
Of course they say no, they have never thought about men that way. And you respond that they were born straight, proving it was not a choice.
Wonder if something similar would have the same sort of impact if a woman came up to me snivelling about the evils of homosexuality. (Except I've never had that happen, hmm...)
Having said that, if I am ever faced with a bigot telling me that homosexuality is a choice, I will happily unzip & tell him what part of my body he can choose to wrap his choice around, just to see the look on his face.
@14 -- Yes, I agree; homosexuality and bisexuality should be legal and okay even if they're chosen. But many LGBTQ people have tried very hard to be straight and failed, and it'll galling to those people to have someone tell them it's a choice when they tried with all their might to choose to be straight ... and it still didn't work.
It's wonderful that some LGBTQ people today DON'T try to be straight first. One does violence to one's psyche with that maneuver. But I think even in this day and age, most LGBTQ people do try to be straight first, because it's an easier life. Of course, coming out as queer gave me things that I wouldn't pass up, now that I know about them. But I didn't know I was going to get them when I made the decision to accept my queerness.
@8: They don't think the last three are sins, despite them being commanded in the OT. They typically make up some excuse like that those only applied to Hebrew civil society or that god changed his mind when he came to earth or something. And they definitely do fight against premarital sex in various ways.
As an adolescent I got heavily involved in a Christian youth group, which I thought would please my parents but they were surprisingly unenthusiastic.
Out of curiosity, I asked my "youth pastors" about things like the role of women and if homosexuality was a sin. This was a United church (we even had a female minister!). The answers I got, from the smartest one, were that, although men are given power over women, by god, good men use that power to grant their wife equal rights in a marriage. Ta-da! And yes, homosexuality is a sin.
2 things happened after that: first of all, lit. nerd that I was, I decided to read the bible, front to back, and (and this will date me, for sure) I saw the movie "Philedalphia". The bible was horrifying. Enough said. The movie was absolutely beautiful to my 14-yr old mind (ok, I had a huge crush on Antonio Banderas and Tom was cute too) and it made me decide that love is beautiful, and should never be undermined by someone's narrow idea of what it should be. Tom & Antonio, and the Neil Young title song...wow! the romantic in me quit religion right then and there, for many reasons, but that one the most powerfully.
Ironically now I've lost my faith in "soulmate" love (in favour of the realistic thing) but the logic of what I realized at age 14 about sexual orientation has remained true.
Choicers are so wrong. And so tangled up in their own anxiety! They all need a slap. Go read some books! Watch some movies! Do some travelling! Get your head out of it's own miserable mush! Enjoy the world around you! Try something new, if it doesn't turn you into a quivering jellyfish of fear! Yeesh.
It's basically just to take the piss out of the gay-haters. And works like a charm.
Go, Adam, go! :D
They might actually suck your dick.
And us gay guys know that there is indeed such a thing as a bad blowjob. (I don't think straight guys know this, but it's not a secret.)
Although putting up w/ one of these loons on the end of your cock for a few minutes might be considered "losing the battle to win the war". I'm not trying to stop anyone, I just want people to think this cunning plan all the way through.
And - Way To Go, Adam!!!
D
But I'm a scientist, you know? And very little about humans is really completely biologically deterministic. Saying that people are born gay and there is no way to influence that during development opens us up to counterattack if the facts don't bear that out, and they won't bear that out 100% of the time because real life is complicated.
Anyway, I'm digressing. Well played, Adam.
This is probably the only part that a bystander would notice.
While I agree with Adam's sentiment and anger, making a public scene isn't always the classiest thing to do. Adam's immediate "get the fuck away from me!" from the get go seemed needlessly crass to me, and I curse like a sailor.
A heterosexual chooses not to engage in homosexual behavior and this PROVES that homosexual behavior is innate uncontrollable and unchosen?
Really?
>>"Oh Yeah?! YOU eat 8,000 calories a day and put on 400 pounds, you bigoted asshole!"
"uh...no thanks..."
>>"Well that PROVES IT, doesn't it? I can't help but be a lardass....."
"well, yes, we see your point...."
Anyway, I've also thought it would be easier to just declare gay a religion and even get tax breaks on my bar tab. Rumpspringa will definitely be part of the religion, in case anyone asks.
1. I get three olives in my dirty martini. Three. Not two. Three olives are divine. Two are vulgar and unholy.
2. Where is my dirty martini.
Goes to show you, inside every gay hater is probably a homo.
But first, I'll set aside some bail money.
We gays have many good points of reason against the bigotry, but this is not one of them. If a religious evangelist believes it's a choice, then he/she would only feel more righteous for having chosen not to suck dick. It's no surprise that shitbrains was stunned and had nothing to say; your logic makes no sense.
Of course they say no, they have never thought about men that way. And you respond that they were born straight, proving it was not a choice.
Or they say yes and it's really awkward and sad.
Could you please verify that fact by fucking your mother's cat?
(no whining!
the cat is no hairier than your mother and you never shirk from bonking her.....)
1) it is a wonderful way to confound the haters.
2) I would love start approaching attractive men to tell them that their lifestyle choice is a dirty dirty sin. And should they unzip...so be it.
It's so good to start my day with good news like that! :-)