Women Matter April-May 2014 | Page 15

Being Gay “Is it a choice?” By Mahri Carmichael With Gay Marriage being legalised in the UK there has been an increase in people asking questions about being gay/lesbian. The big one people never seem to drop is “Is being gay a choice?” After doing a lot of research and asking a lot of people, a lot of people have mixed feelings about whether being gay is a choice. I interviewed an 18year old Lesbian, Steff. She’s was also a part of the LGBT NYC team - (Nation Youth Council.) I asked her about her attendance at LGBT meetings and how she felt telling her family and friends about her sexuality. She was rather confident about it; saw it as nothing to be ashamed of. Which is how every gay/lesbian person should feel about it. They shouldn’t feel ashamed, or feel the need to answer the tens of thousands of questions thrown at them about being Gay. An interesting video by wingspan pictures called “love is all you need?” is based in a universe where being gay is “normal” and being straight is the minority. Everything that is depicted as masculine such as sports was now feminine and everything depicted as feminine, like drama, was masculine; a complete role reverse. A girl, who was raised by two mothers, was heterosexual, and she was bullied and teased for it. Even by her parents. So when watching it, you saw how a gay person feels when treated like an outcast, like something “unnatural” and not “normal”. Define normal? There is no definition for normal, because in each person’s life there is a new normal. Being Gay might not be “natural” in the sense of the ability to bare children. But several animals have tendencies to go with an animal of the same sex. Dolphins, lions, brown bears, elephants, penguins, chickens, dogs, cats, cattle. So if it’s a choice? Then do all these animals wake up and decide their sexuality? If it’s a choice, then surely straight people decided they were going to be straight? If you “just know” that you’re straight? Then why can’t a gay person “just know” that they’re gay? The answer is: it’s not a choice. Different things attract different humans. Everyone has a preference of looks and personality. Just like people have preferences on gender. And just because they can’t physically bare children, does NOT mean they aren’t natural. What’s natural to the bear; isn’t to the fish.