When Did You Choose to Be Straight?

[HarveyDarkey]

[GReedDiamond]

1. That was really good, K n R!...nt

[Pretzel_Warrior]

2. When, as a boy, I saw Linda Carter as Wonder Woman

[d_r]

30. yep, me too.

[Agschmid]

3. Great video. Thanks for posting...

Lady Gaga said it best, Baby I was born this way.

[ohheckyeah]

10. One of the few contemporary

singers I listen to. Lady Gaga is bad ass.

[Scootaloo]

4. If nothing else, got them to think on it

Good video.

[Spitfire of ATJ]

5. I'll tell you something good to choose....

Giving up fear.

[William769]

6. Very simple question to make people think.

[Zorra]

7. Excellent, thank you. Several epiphany moments, in real time. nt

[Rhiannon12866]

8. K&R! I've seen this before and it's absolutely terrific!

Deserves to be on The Greatest Page! Thanks for posting!

[applegrove]

9. Captain Von Trapp in "The Sound of Music"

was one of my earliest crushes. I totally saw myself as Maria the wayward nun.

[Egalitarian Thug]

11. Hate to break this to you, but Niel Boortz said this in the early '90s, late '80s. n/t

[ohheckyeah]

12. My brother and I were having a discussion

about homosexuality. I asked him this question and this one simple question changed his whole perspective. Over a period of a couple of months he went from being homophobic to supporting gay marriage.

There is amazing power in making a person THINK.

Thanks for sharing.

[SunSeeker]

13. K & R

[mwrguy]

14. I didn't

Ew

[RedCappedBandit]

15. I wonder how many people with a strong opinion on this matter never even thought to

ask themselves this simple question.

[blkmusclmachine]

16. .

.

[calimary]

17. Hot Diggity-Dog! Like this a LOT! Such a terrific question!

Just really turns the mind on its ear. Really provokes a serious adjustment in one's thinking. "Well, when you put it that way..." GREAT stuff!!! When people really THINK, take time to THINK, seems to me they tend to make wiser choices. 'Cause they're more analytical and objective than worked-up and frenzied about it. It puts a straight person smack-dab in the heart of the matter and lets him/her see things differently - from a gay person's point of view. We straights are never asked this question. It's just not an issue. So I imagine that makes it harder for some to wrap their brains around, when it's not something you deal with as basic and over-arching part of who you are. Certainly broadens the perspective!

[Hydra]

18. Funny, I must be a weirdo

When the meme started that people choose to be gay, I was like "You choose what you're attracted too? Never worked that way for me..."

[LordGlenconner]

19. Excellent point

And one I started using several years ago whenever the "choice to be gay" canard came up, usually by an evangelical. It's a real "mind fucker" for some of those folks.

To take it a step further, since they believe homosexuality is the product of an environment or choice, I like to ask how much convincing it would take for them to perform oral sex on another man or woman, since, you know, our sexuality can be shaped and altered with words, at least in their eyes.

[KamaAina]

20. July 12, 1979.

[ileus]

21. 1970

[Katashi_itto]

22. Sometime as a kid I guess. My mother had a story.

I liked my silky security blanket when I was a kid.

Took it everywhere.

One day in New York. Mom took me to Macys for the xmas sales rush. We didnt take my blanket.

In the rush and crush of the crowd she briefly lost hold of me.

Panicked she started looking, when she heard a scream.

She looked and I was next to a young lady in a skirt, my hands on her silk stockinged legs, running my hands up and down (I was six). The lady was looking at my mom like she had raised a small pervert. Mom was highly embrasassed.

Evidently her legs made a good replacement for my silk blanket.

And I've always liked women in stockings for some reason...

[ladyVet]

23. Well, you see,

when a mommy cell and a daddy cell get together and make a baby cell...

I don't remember actually "deciding" any such thing. I was just born this way. Some people are born another way, which is none of my business.

[uponit7771]

24. ~ 4th grade, my mother gave me a choice...dudes stank, girls didn't

[Rex]

25. It's impossible to choose attraction. The brain doesn't work that way.

Just like it is impossible to avoid being attracted to someone as well. Either ya are or yer not.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

26. Sheena of the Jungle's skimpy outfit in the comic books gave me a.....clue.

[Bunnahabhain]

27. Is "straight" still the proper term?

I thought it is now "cisgender" and "cis-sexual?"

[Rex]

28. What does cis stand for?

nt.

[Bunnahabhain]

29. Latin for "on this side of"

Here's the wiki: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cisgender

[Rex]

32. Okay thanks!

nt.

[xchrom]

31. i tried 'choosing' to be straight....it never took. nt

[Puzzledtraveller]

33. about 12

[riqster]

34. In the womb. nt

[Behind the Aegis]

35. In High School....it didn't stick!

As Popeye says, "I yam, what I yam, and that's all I yam!"

Though I hate yams, I prefer pickles!

Wait, did I really say that?!

[CrispyQ]

36. Great vid!

Thanks for posting.

~kick

[Matariki]

37. when committing to a monogamous relationship with my current partner

such is the difficult road we bisexuals tread. thnx in advance for your pity and compassion.

[RebelOne]

38. When I lived in Miami, I had many lesbian and gay friends and co-workers.

And they all said that even as children they were attracted to the same sex. But what I did notice was that many of the males had close relationships with their mothers.

[loyalsister]

39. I've wondered about that

I have thought that maybe if I had a choice I would not have chosen the frustration of hetero relationships. I like boys, but as we all know, it is often difficult to find common ground with the opposite sex.

[yodermon]

40. This doesn't work on the true bigots / evangelicals.

Their logic of course is that ALL people are born straight, and the gays are just sinning.

The peeps in this vid seem to be average folks having the heteronormative scales fall from their eyes. Whoever made the vid could have easily edited out any rabid fundies he encountered.

[WCGreen]

41. I found my Dad's stash of Playboys when I was a wee lad and realized that something

wonderful happened with my wee lad...

[Behind the Aegis]

42. I found my Dad's stash too...I was interested in the articles!

Thank G-d for Penthouse, they sometimes had dudes!

[Demo_Chris]

43. One of the most interesting things about this video...

Is how quickly these people reacted to the question and reconsidered their earlier answers.

The question itself is interesting. Anyone who concludes that gays choose to be what they are is obviously looking at it as a behavior rather than an attribute. They would have to believe that gays are not REALLY gay, they are just straight people acting out or with some kind of mental disorder. But the speed with which these people reversed themselves suggests that most of them had not really given the matter a great deal of thought, they did not really believe what they were saying, nor were any of them seemingly bothered by the challenge to their own beliefs the challenge presented.

The country is changing. Even in the deep south the attitude towards gays is shifting towards indifference. I have seen this myself very clearly over the last half dozen years.

[Donald Ian Rankin]

44. Why do people think this line of "reasoning" is a coup?

It is trivial to prove that, for at least some people, sexual orientation is not a choice.

This does not provide any evidence one way or another as to whether or not there exist people for whom it is.