Yes, I realize this is an old thread, but I just discovered this post, and it doesn’t seem like this was addressed (unless I missed something).

Studies examining this with confirmed abuse victims do not bear out your contention but it certainly persists as a belief.

Oh, and one brief comment in addition. Why is it that when people come out as gay, they are finally coming to terms with their real selves, but when people who were self identified as gay start an opposite sex relationship they are just in denial?

Because sometimes Michael – and I do mean sometimes – they are!

Twenty years ago, when I was in college, certain self-proclaimed authorities disseminated literature that claimed that homosexuality was in-born, possibly genetic, and that homosexuals comprised about 10% of the population. This was presented as fact. Some people were supposedly homosexual at the core of their identity, and these individuals would never be happy unless they owned up to it, stopped denying it, and came out of the closet and participated in gay culture.

Wow – you cover a lot of ground in this post. I understand your dissatisfaction with self-proclaimed experts – you find them on both sides of the issue. I too know of people who were out as gay people who eventually married, but they came to term with their bisexuality. I think it would serve this culture well if we embraced the fact that bisexuals exist and not try to marginalize people into either camp. That said, I also know people who were, out, who married and had kids, who later in life left their wives because they realized they were predominantly gay. The fact that they felt they had to marry, to realize some kind of familial or social expectation is sad. Sexual orientation is complex and varied. Today we know that somewhere between 3-7% of the population is gay, but I suspect even that is somewhat under-reported because, even in our culture, it is not always, or even mostly, ok to be gay – despite what the media might have you think.

Today, thankfully, we have same sex couples who are married with children and opposite sex couples married with the same. I can only hope that as society becomes more accepting of gay folk, that some of these “issues” become less so over time, because they won’t be so politicized or marginalized.

Twenty years ago, when I was in college, certain self-proclaimed authorities disseminated literature that claimed that homosexuality was in-born, possibly genetic, and that homosexuals comprised about 10% of the population. This was presented as fact. Some people were supposedly homosexual at the core of their identity, and these individuals would never be happy unless they owned up to it, stopped denying it, and came out of the closet and participated in gay culture. This had two main effects in the long run that I can see. The first is that many people who previously rejected homosexuality as immoral came to see it as just a natural variation in the human population. It seems to be the major argument that bears weight with people: “It’s not a choice, they are just born that way.” The second is that many people who experienced some degree of same sex attraction were convinced they had no future in a heterosexual relationship–could never marry, have children etc. and were stuck with a sort of deterministic view of their sexual orientation and future life. Over the course of my life, I’ve seen a lot of people have both homo and heterosexual relationships as time has gone on. Some people who “came out” twenty years ago are now happy parents and spouses, and some “straights” from years ago are now living in a same sex relationship or as promiscuous gays. As I’ve traveled and experienced different cultures and also studied history I’ve found that exclusive and deterministic homosexuality as postulated by American gays is not universal in history or across cultures. I don’t believe that this idea has served either homosexuals or society at large well. I think it is responsible for a lot of human tragedy, and paradoxically has contributed much to the notion that we are not free moral agents. Today people who express unorthodox opinions from the gay rights party-line are excoriated in print–witness the irrelevant bashing in this forum. It has become very unhealthy for the pursuit of truth. If there are environmental factors in the development of same sex attraction, we’d be well served to know that. And if there are genetic or other biological factors causing some pre-disposition, that would also be useful to know. But neither of these factors has anything to do with whether homosexual acts are moral or not. Even if very strong inborn biological factors strongly pre-dispose some people to homosexuality doesn’t answer that question. This question is beyond the realm of science. And as Forrest Gump said, “That all I have to say about that.”