The LA Times editorial “Gay is a choice” is old news but postworthy nonetheless. One way in which I differ from most of my liberal friends is that many of them will adamantly insist that being gay is not a choice, and that’s why it’s ok. As the article points out, calling homosexuality a choice has long been a way of signaling that it is a wrong choice or that homosexuals are being self-centered by not considering those around them who might feel uncomfortable with such a choice. I’ve always felt that life is–or at least fairly should be–free will colored by natural inclinations.
But insisting that homosexuality is wholly involuntary does little to defend gays and lesbians from social disapproval. After all, the subtext of the “choice” debate is that opposing gay rights is only appropriate if gays select their sexuality, since it is unfair to punish someone for something one does not control. Yet this reasoning raises a larger question: Why should equal treatment of gays and lesbians hinge on whether they have chosen or inherited their identities? Whether our DNA or our free will are “at fault” really only matters if being gay is a bad thing.
Indeed, when it comes to other aspects of our identity and behavior, we generally don’t dwell on the question of choice. To ask whether a practicing Catholic or a professional dancer has “chosen” to be a Catholic or a dancer seems bizarre, not because we entirely deny that an element of choice is involved but because we recognize that the lives we lead are the layered products of our experiences and passions, our convictions and longings, our judgments and follies.
The concept of choice should be no more — and no less — applied to sexual orientation than to our religious, political or vocational identities.
It is this understanding of choice that embodies the noblest meaning of American freedom. It is a conception of freedom that invites us to choose to do what we think we ought — to act in accordance with our deepest convictions.
For once, Sarah Palin is right that we don’t need to know the cause but that’s because we also don’t need a solution.
Filed under: Gender & Sexuality
