Journal Journal: Why they think it's a "lifestyle" 8
Larry Craig trying to play pass the potato has finally crystallized the answer to a question that has been floating around the back of my head for many years now. Why do so many social conservatives believe that being gay is a choice?
ANSWER: because for them, it really is a choice.
Way back in college I completed most of a minor in Psychology (then transferred schools and did most of a minor in CS, then decided to just graduate rather than finish either, but I digress). The key point my favorite Psych professor stressed about sex was that orientation is not a boolean toggle. It's a continuous set, bimodally distributed with a large hump near the hetero end, a smaller one on the far side, and a non-zero curve joining the two. (FWIW, I express this mathematically because that was my major; she taught it with friendly illustrations).
For most of us, preference is just a hard-coded trait. We might feel an outlier twinge once in a while, but it's not enough to act upon or even worry about. But imagine what it's like for folks toward the middle of the spectrum, who find themselves attracted to both genders on a recurring basis. Among the Reality-Based Community, such a person might accept being bi and have a good time. However, for someone whose gut tells them that devout belief supersedes pesky facts, wow, this is a serious problem!
And so we end up with hundreds of these conflicted souls entering politics, publicly proclaiming their choice of heterosexuality, while covertly looking for cock in bathroom stalls. Almost makes me feel sorry for them. Almost.