Show Being Gay Is s a Choice Nathaniel Frank Special to the Los Angeles Times So one of Alaska Gov Sarah Palin's Palms best friends is gay Her pal happens to have made a choice that isn't a choice that I have made Palin told Katie Couric recently That language resurfaced in the vice-presidential vice debate when Palin insisted that she was tolerant of Americans choosing relationships that they deem best for themselves Calling homosexuality a choice is the time-tested time way politicians signal the their belief that it is the wrong choice Which is why Palin's Palms comments prompted predictable anger from rights gay-rights advocates Typical was a Washington Post opinion piece saying that no one would choose to be part of a group whose members have to sue their way to basic rights But insisting that homosexuality is wholly involuntary does little to defend gays and les lesbians ians' ians from social disapproval After all the subtext of the choice debate is that opposing gay rights is only appropriate if gays select their sexuality since it is unfair to punish someone for something he or she does not control Yet this reasoning raises a larger question Why should equal treatment of gays and lesbians hinge hingeon on whether they have chosen or inherited their identities Whether our J I DNA or our om free willare will willare willare are at fault really only matters if being gay is a abad abad abad bad thing It is past time to retire the question of whether being gay is a choice not because its it's been settled but because it never made sense in the first place Indeed when it comes to other aspects of bf our identity and behavior we generally dont don't dwell on the question of choice To ask whether ask whether a practicing Catholic or a professional dancer has chosen to be a Catholic or a dancer seems bizarre not because we entirely deny that an element of choice is involved but because we recognize that the lives we lead are th the layered products of our experiences and passions our convictions and longings our judgments and follies What causes people to become vegetarians athletes poets stockbrokers or bank robbers Most people if we bother to think about it probably believe such identities are the result of responses to impulses and convictions that shape peoples people's actions over time How the impulse or conviction got there no one is certain but theres there's surely an element of chance involved A person chooses to become a teacher but the desire to teach and the conviction that says being a teacher is right and good these cannot sensibly be reduced to a simple act of human will Yet too many Americans continue to view sexual orientation as just that At the same time they cast other spheres of identity particularly religion as matters of conviction and deep principle In fact the parallels between sexual orientation and religious faith may be more marked than their differences Religious Americans often speak of a surge of emotion from deep within them of hearing a calling I from something outside of themselves and of following the dictates of their conscience Likewise gays and lesbians frequently describe same- same sex attractions as an undeniable force or a deep- deep seated feeling that they must respect if they are to tobe tobe tobe be true to themselves How one responds to these stirrings may be largely a matter of choice just as one may choose whether to act acton acton acton on a belief or whether to practice a faith But American institutions properly protect our right to practice the religion that speaks to our soul Why not champion a homosexuals homosexual's right to honor erotic romantic and emotional callings in the same way so long longas as doing so doesn't harm hann others The concept of choice should be no no o more and no less applied to sexual orientation than to our religious political or vocational identities It is this understanding of choice that embodies the noblest meaning of American freedom It is a conception of freedom that invites us to choose to do what we think we ought to act in accordance with our deepest convictions And its it's a notion of freedom with a long and celebrated history in American culture The Pilgrims did not come to America seeking license permission to do anything they pleased but liberty the right to exercise their judgment as they saw fit The freedom celebrated by Thomas Jefferson was the freedom to practice civic virtue to behave the way one thought one should not to live and let live Ralph Waldo Emerson counseled self-reliance self not so we could indulge our whims but so we could intuit our true callings and choose to pursue the paths that make us most ourselves If Palin's gay friend is like other gays and lesbians her sexual orientation is neither a choice to be tolerated nor nora a sentence to be served Its It's an expression of her freedom to be herself a freedom that as Palin Palm said in the debate is always just one generation away from extinction I 1 |