Attempts at Defining Homosexuality

The nature v.s. nurture conflict has raged on for years when it comes to homosexuality. One side saying that you are, as they say, “born this way,” and others who say it is a lifestyle choice. The biggest argument towards the nature side is that people who are homosexual go through so much hardship that it would be highly improbable that someone would choose a more difficult life. The biggest argument for the nurture side is that the person who is homosexual is misguided and is choosing to engage in a negative life choice.

Technology is being applied to this debate in the form of scientific technologies. Studies are being, and have been conducted, to determine where sexual orientation comes from. Whether it is our identity or our choice. Freud certainly had something to say on this topic of what makes someone a homosexual, but this is not what we would like to discuss at this point in time. What is really starting to define this identity v.s. choice issue is being explored in the sciences.

Biological sciences as well as gene studies and neurological studies have focused their attentions on where homosexuality and sexual orientation comes from. What the vast majority of studies point to is that you are in fact, “born this way.” That hormones are a huge factor in determining ones sexuality, and there have even been studies done to find the “gay gene.”

So what does this all mean? Sexuality is something complicated that we as humans do not know a whole lot about. We know that we like some people sexually that others might not, and sometimes there is even a change in the gender we like. We also know that anyone can choose to act on a feeling, or they can choose not to. I, personally, would never ask someone to change how they feel for anyone else other than themselves. This issue becomes sticky because of the various beliefs that people have. Homosexuality is seen as a sin, as a life choice, as an identity, and even as a struggle to different people. How it is that we make any issue seen the same by all is something that will never be done. All we can ask is to have these differences in views work together somehow in peace, not in harmony, but in civil peace.