The current popular debate in America regarding LGBT rights has been mainly, but not completely, reduced erroneously to the nature vs. nurture argument. It seems that it was first the anti-LGBT conservatives, along with the media, who steered the debate in this direction, but the LGBT community has willingly followed suit. I take issue with this because, like a lot of American cultural and political debate, this pigeon holes the dialogue and obscures the root of what the debate is. It’s solely a human rights issue. It doesn’t matter if someone decides to be LGB or T or is such by genetics, because either way, that’s who we are, and it’s a valid expression of humanity either way, and we, as humans, don’t deserve to be persecuted or reduced to second class citizens because of it. Just as people who choose to be of a certain religion, or people who, through genetics, have a darker pigmentation, don’t deserve such treatment. We need to change the popular dialogue back to focusing on human rights, and stop allowing others to create contexts that are simply smoke screens to hide the insecurities that create bigotry and further divides the citizens of humanity into ever more splintering factions when what it should be doing is erasing the dividing lines. Lines who’s implications we on this site understand all too well. Please feel free to share your thoughts?
I agree fully. Nature v. Nurture is bullshit. Sure, I'm certain someone out there has experimented with the same gender even though they were straight. But I'd be willing to bet that 99% of LGBT's would say that nothing made them gay. We don't deserve to be second class citizens because of who we love, because nothing made us gay or bisexual or transgender just like nothing made my parents straight. That's just how they are, that's just how they were born.
Hi, I know this thread has not been active in a long time, but I saw it and figured I should write something regardless. I now identify as a gay trans guy, and I'm okay with that. I identify as many other things too... like an introvert, a writer, a shy person, a poet, an anime nerd, a fan of classic rock and roll, a bit of an environmentalist, a space nerd, and the list goes on. I'm a lot of things, and they are all things i have grown to like and understand about myself, the potential was always there. I hear some people saying "You didn't always know you were X so you can't be X, it's just a phase, it's just because you're trying to rebel, that label does not fit you..." Those things are completely unfair. Some people do not realize who they are, who they like, what they believe in, what their purpose is in life until later because they are not exposed to it. I'm not saying people learn to be gay, or trans, or x,y,z, other things, I'm saying, they have always been the way they are, it's just they did not have the words before. You learn the words, but you do not learn and choose to be the thing itself. I believe you are born with certain potential for things, and then, depending on how your life goes and what happens to you you either learn who and what you are and want early, or you come to terms with all the confusion inside you later in life.
