Session 31 - As a Gay Man, I think Ra's take on Homosexuality is idiotic

[Chandlersdad]

We are each unique, as Ra often stated. But I must disagree with the nnotion that sexual orientation is "just preferences". I knew I was gay by the time I was 8 years old. I hated the idea. I did not want to be gay. It was a huge catalyst for me to discover myself. Yes, I was gay. That was just the way it was. It was not a "preference" like preferring Snickers over Milky Way bars.

I just find it dangerous in our homophobic society to casually refer to homosexuality as a preference like prefering the color blue.

For sure, the process by which ones comes to prefer a color is not as complex as having a preference for a sexual orientation.  I don't think it at all trivializes something if you see it as 'just a preference' but instead validates it.  I don't see a preference as something you just randomly decide one day for fun, but something which builds up over time after much experience.  In that sense you could say that preferences are the ways in which we express our current configuration.  Who knows why we have the preferences we do?  There are probably so many factors that it would be close to impossible to come up with something substantial. 

You seem to have zero empathy for the nature of most homosexual men, which is that they realize quite young that they are sexually different from other boys and that this can cause great anguish. Perhaps you are bi-sexual (as we define it, not as Ra defines it) so that learning over a long period that you prefer men was not more than a mere preference. I am sure that teenagers are not killing themselves over being gay simply because they realized over time with experience that they had a preference for the same sex. It was their sexual orientation. No buts, no caveats, no decisions to make.

Where did I say it was a 'mere preference'?  I think maybe you have misunderstood the way in which I am using the word preference.  I consider my sexual orientation a preference.  I don't personally find that offensive or think it in any way diminishes it.  I think that our preferences are quite heavily ingrained in us and we have little choice with them, at least that has been my experience.  I'm also not dismissing the discrimination that homosexual people experience, I don't see where you got that from.  Yes, many people are discriminated against for their preferences, I am in no way denying that. 

I am sorry that you felt attacked. I did not intend to do that. But I've been around a long time (in my 60s) and I see the subtle influence of the words used (often by our enemies) to describe homosexuality. My favorite is "a life style CHOICE". In other words, we don't have an innate sexual orientation, we have made a choice. Of course, they consider it a bad choice, like deciding to rob a bank or murder someone. I am just a stickler for words. I was a technical writer for many years. To me, I can see someone easily equating "preference" to "choice", which is a loaded word for the Christian right who must believe that gay men choose to be gay, thus making it a sin. I was just making an abstruse point. Don't worry about it. I was being picky.