choosing who you are

Ok, I'm just going to say this: The arguments against gay marriage drive me nuts. What a load of crapola. One of the components that often goes into the arguments is the idea of "choice." You know, people choose to be gay. Black people don't choose to be black, so we should be tolerant and not discriminate. For gays and lesbians, it's ok because they choose it. More crapola.

Well, here comes this wonderful article. Basically, it posits the question, so what if people could choose? By saying black people don't choose to be black, we are implying that they would rather be white. Yeah, maybe not so much. Science says that gays do not choose to be gay, but so what if they do? Do we all have to be straight white people, whether by choice or not?

Let's just all find a way to love who we are and let others be who they are. And those of us in the majority, how about we stop trying to take away rights from those in the minority. Ok?


http://ta-nehisicoates.theatlantic.com/archives/2008/12/what_if_it_is_a_lifestyle.php

"Implicit in that logic is a kind of judgment, the notion that if I could choose, I obviously would choose to be white. But what if I just like being black? What if I could choose and would still choose black? Ditto for homosexuality. So what if you do choose to be gay? I understand that a lot of the science says you don't, but why do we accept this implicit idea that heterosexuality is, necessarily, what everyone would chose?

I'm not trying to minimize the bias and trauma that must come from being out, but a basic extension of humanity, a belief that those who aren't like me actually are like me, says that to be gay has to be more than coping with living beneath the boot of the ignorant. It's always about more than getting your ass kicked, no? What if you actually love the "more than?" What if it is who you are and what you choose?"