 Originally Posted by Alric
What does roleplaying games like d&d, computer games, playing baseball, driving fast cars, drawing, tv, climbing, swimming, running, boxing, stamp collecting all have in common? All of them are preferences. Some people enjoy doing them, some people do not. Do I need proof and scientific studies to prove that they are all not genetically build in? If I claim they are preferences, you going to call me illogical, because I couldn't possibly know that a person have a choice. You going to argue with me over how each must be a genetic preference that was built in when I was born?
I never said that every little thing had to have a genetic origin. But, what makes you so dead-sure that homosexuality is only a preference? I could argue it's a different form of instinct. Genetics got the "have sex" bit right, but switched about the "with whom" part of the program. It could be that, during brain development, a gay person's neurons connect a bit differently. Perhaps even that prenatal developmental stage shapes our future interests and preferences. It could be any number of factors. People who receive more testosterone in the womb are usually more aggressive, and so would not be content with something like stamp keeping, and may prefer race car driving or baseball playing. Now of course I'm not going to say that development throughout life isn't going to have an impact at all...that would be silly. But neither am I going to discount the possibility of prenatal and genetic factors, as some do. I retain my stance that homosexuality is not an active choice an individual consciously makes in a short period of time...the same way people don't actively choose to be heterosexual.
How come being gay is singled out from all of them, as different. How come being gay needs studies and genetic testing to find out where it comes from, while no such things exist for people who enjoy reading comic books?
Because a joy for reading comic books can rise up out of anything, and can spontaneously develop in the course of a couple of minutes. Homosexuality, on the other hand, is far more complex and more deeply rooted. A person will get a nice chuckle out of a comic book, but love is a far more powerful emotion. Hobbies come and go, but sexuality seems to be somewhat rigidly defined on an individual basis, which is to say, a person does not typically move very far from whatever point on the gradient they landed at. Gay people tend to stay gay, straight people stay straight, and bisexuals bisexual. Deviations from the norm could be a result of any numerous factors. A straight person who suddenly finds themselves gay, perhaps, may have hit upon a level of self-realization, suppressed by societal expectations until just that instant.
The truth is that they are no different. The reason being gay is singled out, is because it involves sex. Not only sex, but a sexual taboo. If it didn't involve sex, we wouldn't think twice about it.
There is more to homosexuality than just animal sex, you know. Like, emotional love, excitation, and the like. I could care less that it involves sex. Remove the sex, and you still have deep-seated love for a person of the same sex that that same person does not hold for members of the opposite sex.
You havn't show any evidence to prove that it is any different from any other preference. Except a vague reference that some scientist, may have discovered a gene that plays a small part in it.
And you haven't shown me any evidence that homosexuality is as simple as being a preference for one gender or another. I believe I just showed above, too, how it is different from picking up a comic book. A person could go out and have gay sex, but if that attraction, if that love, is not there, it isn't there. The sex may be great, sure, but without love, it isn't homosexuality, is it?
 Originally Posted by Alric
Like I said though, it doesn't have to be a conscious choice. Subconscious choices, preferences based on past experiences, social pressures, and cultural influences all count.
Again, all things outside the direct control of the individual. My argument is simply that homosexuality is not a conscious choice a person makes. That's all I'm arguing. Beyond that, I'm tossing out other possibilities with evidence neither for nor against in an effort to show you that you could very well be wrong. I grant that I could (and likely am) wrong on at least several of the potential causes of homosexuality I'm tossing out, but you seem to remain perfectly certain that your point of view, made on personal observations without objective evidence, is absolute truth. See, that kind of pisses me off, because we don't know. Logically, we may like to think we know, but we don't. Your hypothesis that homosexuality is solely about preferences influenced only marginally by prenatal or genetic factors is just that: a hypothesis. It is a testable claim with thus far inconclusive results.
Which is the same as any other preference. Often you don't consciously decide if something is fun, its either fun or it isn't fun. Though the reason it is fun is because of your personality which is made up of past experiences, and conscious and subconscious decisions. Your personalty is not created and predestined from birth based on your genes, like some people might lead you to believe. Sure genes may play a part in the start, but its hardly the be all and end all of everything. You cant just blame everything in genes.
I never said that genes were the be-all end-all of everything. And "blaming" genes? What an interesting selection of words for the context of this argument. Is there something wrong with homosexuality? (You see how fun it is to put words in the mouths of others?) Genetically, science has gotten very interesting results with just how much a person's personality is determined by genes, right down to hand gestures. I do think they play a larger part than you give them credit for. I'm afraid we have gotten a bit off-topic with the "nature vs nurture" debate, so...care to remind me exactly how it is an abnormality?
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