Homosexuality is a Choice.

1-2"My opponent believes people choose to be gay" Why my opponent would believes such a thing is confusing to me as I very clearly stated my opinion in this debate. In fact, when my opponent says "choose to be homosexual", is he referring to the gay lifestyle? Might this be the source of his confusion? We are debating the state of being homosexual, the physical attraction, and not the lifestyle. People can choose to have sex with whoever they like, but the attraction to a certain gender, however, is determined at birth, as proven by(1). We CAN all choose with whom we sleep with, but we can NOT choose with whom we are physically attracted to. If you are born physically attracted to females, then you shall always be attracted to females; if you are born attracted to males, then you will be attracted to males. It's your genetic code. Celebrities mask their sexuality all of the time; why? Because of the social pressure they face from the media and the many forces that do not appreciate them for who they really are. Now, would anyone CHOOSE to be belittled and insulted on a near daily basis? Would anyone choose to be the victim of general hate-speech? Actually, people who identify as gay, bisexual or lesbian are FIVE times more likely to miss school due to feeling unsafe and FOUR times more likely to commit suicide. Homosexuals earn up to 14% less than their straight peers and 18% of employers would fire a homosexual, 27% of employers would refuse to hire a homosexual and 26% would refuse to promote a homosexual. (2) Would anyone CHOOSE to endure this? I don't think so. Genetics are a definite; they can never be changed, no matter how hard you try. (Video 1 2:30 to 3:02) Up until now, I have not seen any evidence from the CON supporting his claims that your natural attraction can be changed. 3"Ricky Martin chose to be straight." As for Ricky Martin, he did not CHOOSE to BE either straight or gay. There is no proof of this. People live in fear of their sexuality because of all the hatred and violence they may face (2), the possibility of being rejected by their friends and even family and the fear of facing judgement everywhere they go. Because of this homophobia, Ricky Martin held in his sexuality. Most people even experiment too to determine if their feelings are true or not. I am a living example of this too, and I in fact did not choose to be gay, so were the people that I highlighted in the videos in my last argument, I'll re-post those for reviewing. 4"We can all choose what we can be, not just because you are homo means you have to be that way." I would like to point out my opponents rather derogatory use of "homo" and that using the word in that way is actually quite an offensive little slur. Now, to the manipulated data. Twin studies actually show that in identical twins, if one is gay, then the other is also gay 75% of the time.(1) My opponent stated that since they weren't both gay 100% of the time that genetics are not the cause. This is very false as even in identical twins, the genomes are not exactly the same within that twin set, there are differences which account for that other 25%.(3) Still, having that 75% relation in the twins is a much higher result than if genetics played no role. Additionally, in fraternal twins, both twins were gay 1/3 (33%) of the time, this is also a much higher statistic than if genetics played no role as fraternal twins have much different genomes than identical twins do but still, more identical genomes than two separately born children. There is also a difference in brain activity in gay men compared to straight people.(1) The findings of this study showed that the shaping of the brains of gay men more closely resembled straight women than gay men. This is because of Fraternal Birth Order Effect.(5) "Just because it's genetically related does not make homosexuality normal." This statement by my opponent actually is also false, as not only does homosexuality occur in humans, but it occurs in many animals throughout the animal kingdom and is in fact a very normal behavior.(4) To conclude, we are not debating whether homosexuality is normal or not, but rather being attracted to a member of the same sex is not a choice for the person. I am going to repeat my statement that many psychological organizations state that sexuality is unchangeable and a change should not be attempted.(6) 1 http://lakeweedatarrowhead.net... 2 http://www.now.org... 3 http://www.scientificamerican.com... 4 http://news.nationalgeographic.com... 5 http://www.thedenverchannel.com... 6 http://archive.psych.org... http://www.youtube.com... http://www.youtube.com... http://www.youtube.com... http://www.youtube.com...