I was looking at the graphic on Mr Fabulous‘ blog which says ‘Gay by Nature – Absolutely Fabulous By Choice‘ and also thinking on an article I saw at Queerlife.co.za today which you can read here.

I really don’t like hearing about studies whereby scientists go hunting around for a genetic component to homosexuality.  I’ve always been fascinated by finding truth and I do feel that science is the way to go about it.

As Richard Dawkins has said before now, what creation story you believe in depends on where you’re born in the world and on the religion you were brought up in whereas science offers an objective reality so provided you’re open to what it offers up, it doesn’t matter where you’re situated geographically you’ll believe in the same thing.

This isn’t going to be a spiritual treatise, rather I’m trying to get to where I need to within this entry.  I’m merely stating that as much as I prefer a grounded approach in terms of human progress, I’m a tad concerned by the implications of research into a ‘gay gene.’

On one level, it would silence all those who believe that being gay is a ‘lifestyle choice’ which is a ridiculous argument if ever I heard one but on another more sinister level, it opens the doors to perhaps manipulating a child’s sexuality before he/she is born so that any gayness can be eradicated.

Okay, so being gay isn’t exactly a walk in the park at times but that’s purely and simply because of the society we’re each born into.  It has nothing whatsoever to do with the sexuality itself.  Make the world around us a more accepting place and being gay will be no more difficult than what’s deemed the cultural norm, heterosexuality.

I don’t know why some of us are born gay, lesbian, bi etc etc but we are here for a reason so just let us be.  We wish to live as ourselves, as nature intended.  We don’t wish to have our lives placed under a microsope, there’s enough of that going on out in the world anyhow.

If there must be studies then let the outcomes of those be a way we can build bridges between all sections of life, a means of fostering acceptance and understanding, a way of embracing and actually celebrating diversity instead of finding fault and trying to fix what was never broken to begin with.