Top 10 Reasons People Refuse to Believe that Being Gay is Not a Choice

As someone who is bisexual, I have internalized self-hatred because of it. I'm sick of my existence being controversial and political. It's not my fault I find all girls hot. And I would happily marry all of them.

We like to believe we have progressed as a society beyond the point of no longer discriminating based on things people cannot control, such as race, gender, handicap, and so on. While you can argue this is not universal, at least in an institutionalized sense, we allow everyone of age to vote, be gainfully employed, and generally enjoy the same rights and protections as everyone else.

But we do have institutionalized discrimination against gay people. In some countries, gay people are restricted from getting married or appreciating other benefits traditionally afforded to qualified straight couples, such as tax incentives, insurance coverage, and inheritance. In others, being gay is an outright crime punishable by death.

To continue these practices, which many people are certainly in favor of doing, while not regressing to past years where we discriminated based on innate characteristics, we have to treat being gay as a choice.

God is the all-knowing, all-powerful creator of the universe and everything in it. God is loving, kind, and created man in his own image. If you believe that, and you believe that homosexuality is unnatural or wrong, then you have some dissonance that needs to be resolved.

In order to do so, you have a few choices. You can change your thinking to believe that God is not all-powerful. You can believe that God is not all-loving. Or you can choose to believe that people choose to be gay and take God out of it.

Of course, there is another option people rarely seem to consider: deciding that maybe being gay isn't bad after all. It's an option people gravitate to any other time when the image of God and the way of the world are at odds. But you almost never hear people say "the Lord works in mysterious ways" or "who are we to question the will of God" when talking about homosexuality. Instead, they prefer to use these quotes when their loving, omnipotent God allows children to be brutally murdered or natural disasters to wipe out entire communities.

People who believe that being gay is a choice almost always also share a secondary belief that being gay is less desirable, wrong, or sinful. So who is to blame for this sin?

If you consider something to be a sin, then you need to be able to blame the sinner. If you believe being gay is a choice, then you can blame the person. If you believe it is something they are born with, then you have to blame nature or God. And then you have the paradox of a perfect being acting sinful.

In many places in the world, acceptance of homosexuality is on the rise. That said, gay people almost universally will face greater obstacles than their straight counterparts.

Regardless of your stance on homosexuality, having a son, daughter, friend, or family member come out will be bittersweet. On one hand, there is the relief that they will be able to be themselves and live their lives in the open without the lingering fear of being found out. On the other hand, you know the ignorance and the hatred they will face. It's little wonder people hold on to hope that their loved one, or even themselves, can be changed to be "normal."

If you don't want to be gay, for any number of reasons, then it makes sense to believe there is really no such thing as being gay. And essentially that's what you believe if you think being gay is a choice. There are no gay people, there are only straight people acting gay.

This can be of comfort if you fear you might have homosexual tendencies because you can simply become straight by playing the part.

If you don't want to be homosexual, for any number of reasons, then it makes sense to believe there is really no such thing as being gay. And essentially that's what you believe if you think being homosexual is a choice. There are no homosexual people, there are only straight people acting gay.

The Bible states that being gay is a sin. Ask anyone outside picketing in defense of traditional marriage. And as stated before, God made man. And since God cannot commit a sin, it must be the man. Otherwise, the Bible has yet another hole critics can point to.

For some reason, likely related to other items on this list, people are willing to concede that many of the concepts endorsed by the Bible, such as slavery, stoning, and capital punishment, are either dated or not intended to be literal. This one sticking point is absolutely absolute.

I am a happily married individual. If tomorrow morning I received a letter from the county clerk stating that, due to a clerical error, my spouse and I are no longer technically married, it would have zero effect on our relationship. Sure, we'd have to get the situation rectified for tax purposes, but the love we have for one another wouldn't change one bit.

While I hear people complain that allowing gay marriage is harmful to the institution of marriage or is an assault on the sanctity of marriage, I can't fathom why they feel this way. What two other people's version of marriage is has absolutely nothing to do with my own marriage. I can only assume people making this claim have some concern that the institution of marriage has more of a role in keeping people together than the love between them.

So apparently, these people need to believe that a gay marriage is one between two people intentionally trying to undermine the institution so it can be outlawed.

Religion and faith are powerful things. Sometimes no matter how much research you put in front of people and no matter how many degrees have been earned by the people conducting the research, you simply cannot trump the "because I said so" argument of an authority figure.

I have a male budgie who tried to mate with another male. And yet, animals can't be gay or bi? What the heck?