Homosexuality is a Choice

As my opponent appears to have turned my sources around to benefit his arguments I am sure he will not mind if I do the same. But let us first address the BOP issue: Con began this debate and therefore is responsible for proving without a doubt that homosexuality is NOT a choice,ever, the BOP is always with the O.P. (always has been)and cannot be abandoned because Con decided to pass the buck. This being said I will gladly sum up the evidence I have already provided proving that the only logical conclusion one may come to is that homosexuality is indeed at least partly a choice and sexuality is fluid. Although, because my opponent has abandoned his burden of proof, I will consider that a forfeiture of the round and thus by his own rules a win for the debate. My opponent has attempted a clever but not so elusive dishonesty tactic by listing his sources by numbering them 1-14(As if more sources is equal to a better argument). There is a fundamental problem with this as if one examines the list you will find that he has used the same source on several occasions and yet has given the same source different numbers to make it seem as if he had this huge number of sources when he in fact only had a few which I will further scrutinize. Lets start with the source which my opponent claims to have used the most, Wikipedia- Wikipedia is not a viable source as my opponent himself could very well have provided the inaccurate information. As for the Harvard link which my opponent claims he has used to his benefit; he clearly did not look at the date of the information gathered (1985). Near thirty year old research and now known to be inaccurate. There is not one single piece of evidence which can prove a biological link although homosexuals have and will misinterpret, misrepresent, or flat out lie regarding the results of such research. Although assertions and research persist the only thing close to realizing a biological link is epigenetics which there is still very little known about in terms of a possible relationship with sexual orientation. My opponent claims (as I predicted in round one) that Ex-gays are merely homosexuals who are repressing their urges. It is clear my opponent has a misunderstanding of sexuality. Sexuality is not just the act but the attraction, which means it is based on how we identify ourselves. These people now self identify as heterosexual after years of identifying as homosexual. This undercuts all of my opponents arguments which were lacking in evidence anyway. My opponent has listed a lot of information which points to and hypothesizes about a genetic link but none of his evidence proves the link. So we must conclude no proof exist to establish a genetic link. The evidence I provided is direct statements from individuals who experienced this change in sexuality first hand and there is no reason to believe that they are all being dishonest. Since my opponent will undoubtedly argue that because of a recent debate here on ddo that Wikipedia is a viable source, and since we are now engaged in using each others sources to further our own arguments; I too will use Wikipedia. The APA(one of my opponents most heavily relied upon sources) is not a reliable source because the DSM has been proven to lack validity and credibility. "The revisions of the DSM from the 3rd Edition forward have been mainly concerned with diagnostic reliability"the degree to which different diagnosticians agree on a diagnosis. It was argued that a science of psychiatry can only advance if diagnosis is reliable. If clinicians and researchers frequently disagree about a diagnosis with a patient, then research into the causes and effective treatments of those disorders cannot advance. Hence, diagnostic reliability was a major concern of DSM-III. When the diagnostic reliability problem was thought to be solved, subsequent editions of the DSM were concerned mainly with "tweaking" the diagnostic criteria. Unfortunately, neither the issue of reliability (accurate measurement) or validity (do these disorders really exist) was settled. However, most psychiatric education post DSM-III focused on issues of treatment"especially drug treatment"and less on diagnostic concerns. In fact, Thomas R. Insel, M.D., Director of the NIMH, has recently stated the agency would no longer fund research projects that rely exclusively on DSM criteria due to its lack of validity. Field trials of DSM-5 brought the debate of reliability back into the limelight as some disorders showed poor reliability. For example Major Depressive Disorder a common mental illness had a poor reliability Kappa statistic of 0.28 indicating that clinicians frequently disagreed on this diagnosis in the same patients. The most reliable diagnosis was Major Neurocognitive Disorder with a Kappa of 0.78". http://en.wikipedia.org... My opponent claims to have "turned" my source (www.harvard.edu) but has in fact further proven my case: As it says very clearly at the end of the paragraph regarding the Harvard link, There is some evidence for PREDISPOSITION, which is not the same as predeterminism. If it is not predetermined that it must be at least partly choice thus proving an alternate resolution. www.harvard.edu And yes, let us turn our attention to the AmericanThinker.com link : My opponent has made the fallacious argument that because the debate is about whether or not homosexuality is a choice, that the fact that one can choose whether or not to have sex, somehow negates the possibility of sexuality being a choice. Without both the act and the attraction there is no homosexuality, therefore it is just as important and necessary to analyze the act as it is the attraction. In other words your turn was unsuccessful sir. Lets also examine your other self proclaimed source turn: Turn No. 2 Next, let's look at TheNation.com. This source writes: "No one this side of the rainbow flag is arguing that people choose the direction of their romantic and sexual desires in the way that someone might, say, choose between different brands of toothpaste. Desire happens unbidden." P1. Desires are not chosen P2. Homosexuality is a sexual desire for someone of the same sex C1. Homosexuality is not chosen You are equating two very different things here, actions and desire. Desire does not equal homosexuality. Sexual preference plus activity, is indeed equal to homosexuality. Sexual activity is a choice, therefore sexuality is at least partly a choice. You have also made the enormous mistake of assuming that "this source write's" means that this is the opinion of the site from where it was retrieved TheNation.com. It could not possibly be just the opinion of a contributor to the site right? I mean how would you explain the quotation mark's? I hope that it is understood this is sarcasm. Essentially what I am saying is that you cannot call a contributors opinion evidence of anything. And --Presto! I have shown your research and sourcing methods are overwhelmingly flawed and are therefore invalid as the overall credibility is not just in question but obviously unreliable. We should reject Cons hyperlinked sources because they have proven too unreliable as I have shown throughout this argument. D. Food for Thought- I find it disturbing that you seem to be an intelligent person, but you think that this is equal to evidence: "If people lived in a culture that castigated homosexuals for who they are, do you think they would come out as gay? Many people don't handle the social rejection well, and many want to keep those social and familial ties they risk losing when they come out. Yet, that doesn't stop them from coming out in such cultures. Really, if homosexuality were chosen, rational people in such close-minded societies would save themselves the pain and choose to be heterosexual instead. The fact that people come out as gay in those societies is thus evidence that homosexuality is not a choice." The fact that people come out in countries or societies where homosexuality is forbidden, is far from evidence that sexuality is not a choice. It is not even close to evidence, it is not even close to professional opinion, it is simply your opinion, and it is not based on knowledge but on clear bias. Conclusion: If during this debate one has decided homosexuality is even partly choice I have won this debate. If during this debate you were unable to prove that all ex-gay individuals are in denial and lying, I have won this debate. If during this debate you were unable to prove that homosexuality occurs in nature (in non-human animals), I have won this debate. If during this debate you have failed to prove that biological factor exists, I have won this debate. If your most prominent sources have been proven inaccurate and lacking in credibility, I have won this debate. I with all due respect to my opponent have won this debate, my opponent, although worthy, has failed to accomplish the impossible task of proving homosexuality is not a choice. The thousands of ex gays, and the lack of evidence for a genetic link are enough to establish beyond a doubt that sexuality is at least partly a choice. Even if one feels I did not "prove" my case; it is necessary to decide if my opponent proved his case, which I do not see as evident. When it comes down to it there is simply not comprehensive enough research with the necessary representativeness to answer some questions. In this case there is little question as to what the research does not show, it does not show a genetic link. It does show thousands of ex gays who claim(firsthand evidence)that they are now living as happy heterosexuals. (Choice) Sources: Psychologist and Biologist James D. Weinrich www.harvard.edu/docs/animalmyth.html Behavior, genetics expert,Dr. Thomas Bouchard Dr. Simon Levay-Geneticist Nimmons, 1994, Dr. Mark Breedlove, a researcher at the University of California at Berkeley