Gay: Not a Choice?

Question

Do you mean to tell me that there is no cognitive decision-making process when it comes to gay people having sex? Are gay people driven by instinct, like an animal, or can they make choices?

Are gay people capable of controlling their own behaviors, or are they like our prison population that cannot.

Aristotle's "ETHICS" has much to say about right/wrong, and humans ability to make these choices.

Answer 1

ok we are all sexual beings
we are all born sexual
by that i am sure if i knew how to turn you on i would be able to
as with any normal guy or any normal girl
we all should embrass the fact the we are sexual beings
just because some people like my self do not have sex
does not mean we do not want it at least once

i sdmire all hoosexual people as they have the courage to be them selfs and live there lives there way and not stuck with the brain washed ideas religions have given us over time

Answer 2

uncontrollable animals? is there cognitive decision making process for a man and a woman to have sex. they do it all the time and bring children into the world with a broken home or no home at all. they have sex and get pregnant and then when the baby is born they throw it in the dumpster or sell it like it is a sack of potatoes. and you call us animals not able to make decisions on our own. what about these folks. what kind of a person throws a newborn baby in the dumpster? is that normal for the straight community? isn't that a choice? isn't it a choice to smoke crack and have kids that have birth defects? these people sound like they are driven by animal insticts to me. and what about the population. yes it says in the Bible that that is what sex is for, is to create life and populate the world. but i do not think God had 6.5 billion people in mind when he decided this. there are people all over the worls starving because we do not have enough food for them to eat. and this isn't just in third world countries. it happens here in the united states. there are homeless people and kids that are starving everyday and still the straight community feels the animal instinct to have sex and create another life that cannot be fed. why can't the straight community give child birth a break for about ten years and see how things change in the world. i would bet that things might get a little better. no we did not choose to be gay. there was never one defining moment in our lives when we had to make a choice on to be gay or straight just like there was none for you. we cannot help being attracted to the same sex no more than straights can help being attracted to the opposite sex. and as far as aristotle is concerned, he has been dead a long, long time and things have changed. his thinking was from ancient times not now. but you are right, he did have much to say about right and wrong and it is wrong for gay people to be persecuted for who they are.

Answer 3

Animals have same-sex behavior as well. There is a book that gives a lot of detail on the subject, "Evolution's Rainbow." I can think of at least the bonobo chimpanzees where homosexual intercourse regularly occurs.

Being gay does not necessarily mean rejecting objective morals. However, as we are searching for objective morals, we should keep open the possibility that certain things we think are right or wrong may be the result of past biases and lack of understanding. So although (hopefully) most of our ethical principles are correct, some may be wrong. And it's not the end of the world, we just strive to improve.

Answer 4

Who we choose to sleep with is a choice. As with any choice involving free will, we can decide for ourselves which path we want to take and initiate the actions resulting from those decisions.

In the case of homosexuality, while some men are characteristically more effeminate and some women are more masculine, this does not mean they must mate with someone of the same sex, nor does it mean that they are a biological mistake.

The fact that the search for the elusive "gay gene" has proved fruitless only reinforces the principles of self-direction and self-responsibility when it comes to our sexuality. This is also true in the overwhelming lack of homosexuality among the vast majority of animal species on the planet - as diverse as those are.

One could argue that animals are led primarily by instinct and this results in virtually no homosexual behavior. On the other hand one could also conclude that man is led primarily by higher cognitive thought and has a much higher incidence of homosexuality - thus it is a choice, not an instinct.

The concepts of right and wrong are the basis of our ethics and morals, laws and codes both individually and as a society. If right and wrong become abstract, subjective or flexible concepts, then we can eventually follow our human nature & feelings towards a path of least resistance which is apathy, lawlessness and depravity. If however the concepts of right and wrong are objective, fair, un-changing and fixed, we are less likely to veer from those things which society has been founded upon and positively benefited from for thousands of years.

Answer 5

Gay is an artificial and misleading western construct. So I'll not talk about 'Gays'. For me and the rest of the non-western world, gay refers to feminine gendered male's sexual desire for men, while masculine gendered male's sexual desire for men is well within the purview of straight behaviour, even when it is exclusive.

Now, when two men have sex, they are driven by their instincts of course, because there is no social pressure or rewards to have sex with men (which is not true in the case of sex with women). When a man decides to engage with another man for sex, he is making a choice, but when he is overpowered by sexual feelings then he has no choice.

It is a choice but only in that they choose to listen to their natural feelings over social disapproval of those feelings. I think only brave and real men can do it (that doesn't include gays, you'd be brave if you can bond sexually with another man as a straight without feeling ashamed of it personally)

We need to change the society that forces people to put control on their legitimate sexual needs. The world does not need more children now. It is suffering with over population. State propping up of heterosexuality is a wastful exercise if it doesn't neccarily result in procreation ----- which in the advanced world it does not.

We don't need to force or condition people to be heterosexual when they are not going to produce babies any way. And you don't need to be heterosexual to produce babies. You just need to ***k the woman once. Any man can do it even if there is no sexual need present.

Answer 6

Do you choose to be straight? Being gay is something that can be controlled if you are hiding it from everyone. But if you are truly attracted to the same sex then there is no way to control how you feel. I am gay and I controlled my feeling for 18 years of my life. I just came out this year. It is like a prison because you dont want anyone to know because its not considered "normal" in our society. In my belief its not wrong to be gay, like its not wrong to be straight. They do say in the bible all blah blah whatever, but look at all the sins your commiting everyday. I think that gay people should have every privelage as every straight person does. I dont look like I could be gay, but because of my orientation I have got fired from 4 jobs. Its stupid how people are so stereotypical and live life by the book.

Answer 7

Of course gay people can choose whether or not they will engage in sex. This is not, and never has been, the issue.

What we cannot control is toward which gender we feel sexually attracted. We could not force ourselves to feel a heterosexual attraction any more than you could force yourself to feel a homosexual attraction.

Why should two consenting adult men be made to feel like bad people for having and expressing the same feelings toward one another as a heterosexual couple? You speak of right/wrong; tell me, in what way does the love these two men feel for each other wrong you? How is anyone harmed?

There is simply no scientific evidence, nor a rational ethical basis, to justify the stigma and discrimination toward gay and lesbian people.

Answer 8

Choices are what define an action.But choices don't always define a cause for the action.In the instance of human sexuality, choices are based on instinct and attraction factors that are both formed from chemical and psychological processes.

A heterosexual could also be said to choose to not have sex.But if they choose to have sex their choice will be based on their psychological and chemical processes of desires and attractions.

If you insist on placing the word "choice" on sexuality then you need to place it in the proper context.Actions are choices.But not all actions are based on choices.Sometimes, actions are choices as a result of psychological and chemical processes.

Now, one could say that murder is also an action based on psychological and chemical processes.They may be correct to a point.But when you explore actions that have dire consequences of the safety and well being of others we must also admit that some choices are wrong.

But, basic human sexuality that is between consenting human adults does not fit into a classification of "wrong" unless you grasp a dogmatic view that places sexual repression as a form of morality and sex as only a procreation process and have absolutely no inclination for a greater understanding of psychology, sexuality, and chemistry.

Answer 9

Straight people also have a decision as to having sex. It's not about sex. Straight people can't choose to be attracted to people of the same gender, no matter how hard they try. If they did choose to have sex with someone else of the same gender, they'd feel equally as disgusted and wrong as any gay person does who's trying to be straight. Behavior, yes, is always a choice. Attractions and aversions are not.

Answer 10

This question is easily turned around on the asker....

If someone makes the claim that there is no doubt that someone "chooses" to be gay, then the person make that statement has obviously had to make that choice themselves at one point in their own lives.

In other words they have "chosen" NOT to be gay, and instead chose to live a hetero lifestyle.

Afterall, making a rational judgement on how someone's urges, sexual or otherwise, can only be explained by firsthand expierience.

Answer 11

Bono - You always have a choice, you don't need to read Aristotle to know that. However you have t be true to yourself and speaking, for myself. I know that the same sex attractions I have had have been far deeper and more satisfying then any opposite sex relationships. Therefore on one level I choose to be 'gay', but on another it is part of my inate self.