Is Heterosexuality a Lifestyle Choice?
A new study has identified a small but significant biological factor that influences the sexual identity of males. The study proves that “having one or more older brothers boosts the likelihood of a boy growing up to be gay — an effect due not to social factors, but biological events that occur in their mother’s womb…”
While the study does not provide the ultimate proof that sexual orientation is innate, it does offer definitive evidence that biological forces have a role.
This is significant because, according to a 2003 Pew poll, 42 percent of Americans believe that homosexuality is a lifestyle choice — and it is among this group that we find the conservatives’ consensus of opposition for equal treatment under the law for gay people.
What fascinates me about rightwingers’ belief that sexual orientation is a choice is that, while they project this decision making onto those of us who grew up to be gay, they are apparently blind to the converse decision-making that it implies about themselves.
If homosexuals “decide” to be gay, then the corollary must be true: Heterosexuality must be a lifestyle choice, too.
What this means is that, at some point in their lives, these conservatives seriously considered becoming gay but then decided to pass.
This decision must have been wrenching. And over time, their suppressed desires turned into self-loathing — a disgust which they came to project onto others who, they believe, did not have the fortitude to conquer their attraction for members of their own gender.
This internalized homophobia is like bulimia of the spirit. Its victims starve their psyches by regurgitating their self-loathing.
Truly straight people do not — cannot — make a choice about their sexual orientation, just as gay people don’t, and can’t, choose. People who are comfortable in their own sexual personae are not threatened by the way the sexuality of others is expressed.
