Is homosexuality a choice?

[Iomfats]

people have said that homosexuality is a choice. Others that it is pre-ordained, others still that it comes from upbringing. In YOUR view, whatis the truth?

[poet89]

I think that there is strong genetic component and that people are born with their orientation either as heterosexual or bisexual or homosexual strongly influenced by this and that environmental factors during pregnancy and after birth play a lesser role in your final orientation

[ien]

In my opinion sexual orientation is not a choice - it's the way you're born. If it were a choice, the suicide rate among gay teens wouldn't be as devastatingly high as it is.
I don't think that upbringing has a lot to do with it either. Lots of men where brought up to be 'real' man - don't cry, don't show emotions - I don't see how that can make someone gay but they still are.

[woebegone]

I think very few people would choose to be homosexual. There is a limited pool of potential partners from which to choose, together with the dangers (real dangers) of being ostracised.

Those of the population who have the mixed fortune to be homosexual were brought up by their parents as model heterosexuals. Their "imposed orientation" was thus planned to be to find a mate of the other gender. But this did not take place.

To me this means that choice is a rarity, "nurture" is discounted, and that homosexuality must, ipso facto, be natural for some of the population

If it is natural, then , since our nature is determined by our genetic makeup (there is nothing else left), it must be genetic.

You will forgive me if I say that it is unlikely to be hereditary, despite the large number of homosexual men and women who are married to the other gender and have fathered or mothered children. I very much doubt, however, that any study on such a population would be possible

[Piljim]

Nobody can help what they feel. What can be helped is whether you do anything about these feelings. The trouble is, our society teaches that sex and sexual relationships are the be-all and end-all. People hold up sexual relationships as the answer to all our longings, which they can never be. I do not believe that there is such a thing as a 'gay gene' - indeed scientists who have recently the mapped the human genome have marvelled at how few genes us humans actually have. Human sexuality is a complicated business and has much to do, in my opinion, with your relationships with your parents as a child. I believe a lot of teenagers/men who have homosexual feelings perhaps never really experienced a close relationship with their father and behind it all are seeking a father figure, which subconsciously is transferred to sexual attraction when sexual awareness arrives. Genetics have their place and do explain some things, but they have their limitations. As a Christian, I believe that ultimate fulfilment is found in a relationship with Jesus Christ, who is there for everybody who accepts Him. He alone has the power to heal us and help us rise our vulnerable humanness.

[Simonreader]

there is no truth to that question..some are born with it others choose it because they like it. The upbringing has just to do with tolerance and self assurance. If your home is homophobic it will destroy you. But basically it is no choice..who would choose to be hated by society if he could not change tha fact

[Votadinus]

Does it have to be any of these three alternatives? I don't think it's pre-ordained, but that doesn't mean that it is a conscious choice, nor that it is the consequence of upbringing. I'd argue that the potential for homosexuality is latent in all of us; the real question is what pushes the buttons to determine whether that potential is realised? It may stem from apparently innocuous experiences in early childhood, or it may be something even more complex - but I'm pretty sure that it happens after we are born, and involves little or no conscious choice. Or am I in a minority of one?

[funkylad20]

Erm, without sounding too political here, I solely believe it is nature rather than nurture. Also, perhaps something to do with an unbalance of oestrogen in the womb during gestation? I know for a fact that a lot of gay men have a longer index finger than their middle finger, attributed to the amounts of oestrogen during foetal development. Nobody would CHOOSE to be gay, a lot of gay mn 'live up' to the stereotype and the scene that comes with it all, but at the end of the day, homosexuality may be nature's way of maintaining an already heavy population...comprende monsieurs?!?