In Reply to: There is a difference posted by Jo on September 21, 2006 at 14:22:09:
Really balanced and articulate.
There's also the issue of trans-sexuality and inter-sexed individuals, where there is so obviously genetic and prenatal dispositions that have nothing to do with the choice of a lifestyle.
Very devout Bible believers often assume that homosexuality is a choice because the Creator doesn't make mistakes. After all, it says in the Bible that God created "Adam and Eve, not Adam and Steve."
However, trans-sexual and inter-sexed people are clearly "mistakes" in ways that can be measured and tested physiologically and psychologically. There are even some neural markers that identify garden variety gay males, commonly referred to as "fags." I don't really believe such people are true mistakes of nature, btw. I'm using that word in the context of creationist theology, where there is an assumption that the heterosexuality reified in the Adam and Eve myth (of 6,000 B.C. Hittite origin) is the only plan for humanity "ordained" by the Creator-God who speaks through Jesus Christ.
Trans-sexual and inter-sexed peoples are part of the natural order; to say they are not present in the human population or somehow unclean and to be shunned is to deny them a social existence. Isn't recognizing the dignity in other human beings as children of God deemed by some to be a basic human right? I have actually heard Bible believers say that such people do not exist, because God doesn't make mistakes.
Well, now I'm at a loss for words and feeling a bit angry about how minority people get stimatized by majority people. So I'll sign out with a sound bite:
We're here, we're queer, get over it.