conservatives and the "choice" of homosexuality

Any time a conversation in modern politics turns to whether or not homosexual couples should be allowed to marry or have a "civil union" or what have you, the conversation inevidibly turns to whether or not homosexuality is natural. You'll get progressive-minded individuals claiming that that's just "how they are" and "who are we to tell them who they can and cannot marry," and you have conservative-minded individuals, who insist that people who are gay are attracted to people of the same gender by their own choice.

I look at the development of a human mind as an immensely complex outcome of an immensely complex equation. To say that homosexuality occurs simply because you watched too much homosexuality-enducing cartoon characters, or because of any one influence is just absurd. To me, it's just how a series of perceptions resulted in a sense of sexuality that's the opposite of the standard practice.

But that's not what I'm here to write about.

What I'm interested in today is why so many conservatives like to call homosexuality a choice.

See, the thing about this line of debate is that conservatives are always throwing it at homosexuals, saying that they made a choice to be gay, and that its sinful to do so, and what have you. But you never have them reflecting this line of reasoning on the straight population.

Why is that?

When they hear about someone being straight, they never say that they "choose" to be straight, no, it's just what they are. This is because once they acknowledge that they believe everyone is "choosing" between being gay and straight, then they have to acknowledge that they are themselves "choosing."

But see, the problem is that, as any normal straight person will tell you (and when I say "normal" I mean "not conservative"), they aren't choosing. It really is what they are. Truth be told, I have never woken up one day and wondered if I should "choose" homosexuality for that day. Never crossed my mind.

So, what is up with these conservatives thinking we're all making this choice, when clearly, it's not the case? I mean, if homosexuals are choosing to be gay, then heterosexuals necessarily must be choosing to be straight, right?

Let's get into this a little more. Who is it, in reality, that really is making a choice when it comes to homosexuality? It's a gay person, when they are deciding when, and if, they should let their sexual preference be known to their family and friends.

So let's juxtopose these interesting, interesting items. On one hand, we have conservatives who think that we're all "choosing" our sexual identity. And we have gay people, who are choosing their outward, public sexual identity, but that they are, without a doubt, gay. And on another hand yet, we have straight people, who know for a fact that they have no desires for anything having to do with being gay, and it isn't a choice in any way.

Could it be that these conservatives are so stricken with anguish over their own homosexuality, and their choice on whether or not to act publically on it?

I mean, clearly, homosexuality-is-a-choice-conservatives have something different in their brains that have them convinced that every single one of us is on the brink of turning gay at any moment. This seems like quite a bit of projection, wouldn't you say?

One definition of projection goes as follows:

The attribution of one's own attitudes, feelings, or desires to someone or something as a naive or unconscious defense against anxiety or guilt.

Bringing this up in debate will most likely win you a black eye or two, but it'll definitely be a great time watching a conservative's brain flip backwards while he or she tries to figure out a defense for this line of logic. They won't be able to simultaniously defend their homosexuality-as-a-choice reasoning and maintain that they aren't an in-the-closet gay themselves. Good times to be had.

Just because we're stuck with this conservative menace ruining our country, it doesn't mean we can't have a bit of fun at their expense.