frankie's Journal: Why they think it's a "lifestyle"

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.

Re:

[account_deleted]

Comment removed based on user account deletion

I'm not entirely convinced by that argument

[benhocking]

I'm not entirely unsympathetic to your argument, but let me make a comparison to a choice I can understand better. Before getting married, the type of women I was attracted to ranged over quite a large continuum. Now that I'm married, that continuum has collapsed to a singularity (my wife). I.e., I have no problems in staying faithful to my wife. I think that if someone were truly in that middle area of the spectrum, then once married (hetero or homo), they should have no difficulty in staying faithful. They have made that choice (as you say), so why should they be looking for the other?

Perhaps these individuals are on that continuum, but really close to the homo side of it. That'd make more sense to me.

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[frankie]

Sure, could be so. OTOH, there are plenty of married folk who cheat on their spouses. I think fidelity has much more to do with emotional maturity than your range on sexual continuum.

Admit it, you have Carter-like lusts in your heart! ;-)

Carter

[benhocking]

Yeah, I don't see that such an admission would ever be a good idea, as Carter so wonderfully demonstrated. I really like the guy, but that was not one of his wisest moves.

Good Enough For Now

[HTH NE1]

Now that I'm married, that continuum has collapsed to a singularity (my wife). I.e., I have no problems in staying faithful to my wife. I think that if someone were truly in that middle area of the spectrum, then once married (hetero or homo), they should have no difficulty in staying faithful. They have made that choice (as you say), so why should they be looking for the other?

I'd think that would be a matter of whether they felt they made the perfect choice or just settled for what they could get. As Al Yankovic sung:

Oh, I couldn't live a single day without you
Actually, on second thought, well, I suppose I could
Anyway, what I'm trying to say is, honey, you're the greatest
Well, at any rate, I guess you're pretty good

Now, it seems to me I'm relatively lucky
I know I probably couldn't ask for too much more
I honestly can say you're an above-average lady
You're almost just what I've

Meh.

[SatanicPuppy]

The prof's opinion is just a restatement of Freud work a century ago...The whole "Weak father, strong mother" thing, which has been pretty thoroughly discredited through statistical analysis...Most homosexuals find it to be somewhat demeaning because they don't view it as a choice at all.

Studies of wildlife populations suggest that homosexuality increases in response to population pressures, and gender imbalances. Since we're experiencing the former as a species, it seems logical to expect an increase in ho

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[frankie]

Some of that sounds good, but I'm a bit confused. First you complain that I'm rehashing bad Freudian theory about parental archetypes (no idea where you get that). Then you spend the rest of your post expounding on repressed urges, which was Freud's really big thing.

I think base gender orientation (hetero vs homo) is mainly neurological, perhaps gestational, with no Freud involved.

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[SatanicPuppy]

The idea that homosexuality is latent in everyone comes from the archetype stuff...Putting it on a sliding scale makes it sound cooler, but it's the same idea.

I think one of the big problems with the debate on homosexuality is that most people think it's either genetic or learned. I think it's both. I absolutely think that some people are born homosexual, but I also think that a goodly number of people end up with homosexual behaviors due to psychological issues arising not from a neurological, but rather a