Random Question: Is Being Gay A Choice?

No, we’re not actually asking this question. This just seemed like an excellent opportunity to address Colorado Senate candidate Ken Buck‘s ridiculous comments on Meet The Press. The “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” supporter was asked to elaborate on recent comments he made about homosexuality as a “lifestyle choice”, as host David Gregory asked him what this “choice” was based on…

“Based on what?” Buck responded. “I guess you could choose who your partner is… I think that birth has an influence over it, like alcoholism and some other things. But I think that, basically, you have a choice.” In other words? Some of us have a genetic predisposition for an addiction to cock, but we can fight against it if we want to!

Um, is anyone crazy enough to vote for this guy? He already offended female voters back in July, and now he’s just continuing to dig his grave! For those who live in Colorado, we implore you to go out and rock the vote. Do you really want to get stuck with someone like this? That’s mostly a hypothetical question, but feel free to answer it…

– Dewitt

42 thoughts on “Random Question: Is Being Gay A Choice?

  1. I remember an “Advocate” reader survey form that had, as one of its first questions, “Current Sexual Orientation” … if one of the leading LGBT publications seems to suggest there is a choice, maybe there is. Not saying I agree with the statement; I’m just sayin’.

  2. If David Gregory had any balls whatsoever, his next question would have been — in your experience, has it been a choice? Have you ever been sexually attracted to another man? And if not, on what basis do you conclude that sexual orientation is a choice for others?

  3. Dewitt, there are enough conservative gay men that read this blog that would vote for a fool like this. Pathetic? Yes! And they will chime in. Now wait…

    Now the logical question for David Gregory should have been, “Why would anyone choose to be gay when there are self righteous prigs like you hating and bashing gays?”

  4. I don’t see how “Current Sexual Orientation” implies that they think it’s a choice. If you asked me that 3 years ago, I probably would have said straight. 2 years ago – Bi. Right now? Gay. You can’t accuse them of saying something they’re not just because they’re being diplomatically vague.

  5. @Brad: The term “current” can suggest flexible, as well as questioning, as it appears in your case.

  6. NO, NOT A CHOICE.

    Who would chose to be in a group that is vilified, discriminated, & disrespected?

    NOT A CHOICE FOR ALL THE IGNORANT WHO ARE NOT GAY AND SAY IT IS A CHOICE.

  7. I’ve Always been gay – think I cruised the doctor comming out of the womb!
    Never remember making or being offered a choice Some experience with women definately something missin!but I know I prefer the company of men. Genetic? I don’t know, upbringing? not a contributing factor for me …. definately not a choice althought I’ve NEVER had a problem with it – just lucky !

  8. The man is obviously stupid. Does he think that people choose to be discriminated against? Does he think that people choose to be harassed? Does he really think that people choose to be the target of hate crimes? If this is the kind of individual representing the people, we might as well be sleeping with our enemies.

  9. I saw this jerk on “Meet The Press” yesterday and was not surprised, unfortunately, at his Neanderthal mentality. This is the type of candidate that appeals to the Sarah Palin voting bloc, and what’s even sadder is that there is such a contingent in the first place. They are a group of less sophisticated, less educated, less informed, more prejudiced, more racist people…the product of the Republican neglect of the education system in this country over the last 40 years. The Repubs know that a less-educated voter is more likely to fall for their reactionary philosphy, and that is precisely why Bush Sr., Reagan, Bush Jr. and other Republican leaders over the last 4 decades have let the education system in this country fall into the sorry state it’s in. To put it bluntly, the greater the number of poorly educated idiots that system turns out, the more likely the Republicans are to get their votes.

  10. Look it’s not a choice I knew I was different when I was 5 years old. As I grew up with every ounce of energy I tried to be stragiht and in my teens had sex with girls but the bottom line is I was born this way. I didn’t wake up one day and say you know what I want some dick LOL…..

  11. I’d definitely vote for Buck… I’m not a single issue voter and Bennett’s positions on the issues are a far greater threat to my freedoms and pocketbook than Buck’s are.

  12. It’s a sad day to be from Colorado. Please don’t write us off because of one idiot’s poorly informed position. Most of us are very cool people.

  13. Beto’s point is well taken. When a straight person of good or bad intention talks about sexual orientation as a choice, a fair rejoinder is, “when did you choose to be straight? can you remember the day, month, year? “. If often causes them to reconsider their assumptions.

  14. Sorry guys, but recent studies seem to show that in MANY cases being gay IS a choice but in many others we seem to be hardwired into being gay. I, for one, have never had a hetrosexual thought in my head but understand that there are different strokes for different folks

  15. I live in Colorado and have been paying attention all of Buck’s television and radio announcements. Each time I hear any of his polititcal positions I want to shout from our beautiful mountain tops, “Don’t vote for this idiot!” I found my loving partner and did not “choose” him from a line-up and I certainly did not choose my sexuality.

  16. No, I do not think it is a choice. Looking back, I was attracted to boys when I was 4 or 5 years old. At that age I was too young to understand. I had no idea what sex was. Yet, I was still attracted to other boys. I was born this way. I am a proud gay man.

  17. I choose to be a fag. That is my choice. If you think it is biological, well, guess what, so is diabetes and sickle cell and such. I do not have the genetic mutation of gayness.

  18. Posting comments here unfortunately don’t pass the eyes of people who need to see them..but it probably wouldn’t matter anyway…so for all of us who know this is important, we need to make sure we move ourselves and our friends to get out and vote to keep these narrow and closed minded fools from getting into office. I’m afraid…these far right fundamental “Palin-ites” can do a great deal of harm in legislatures and communities where we live. More and more embrace exclusionary, divisive,exclusionary, hateful calls to rally against personal rights and freedoms.
    They are the terrorists here at home and it’s time for us to stand in higher numbers and be more vocal against them. Our numbers need to be seen as a wall to turn them back.

  19. Ij my case for as long and far back as I can remember my sex was stimulated by my perception of my biological father and his very active lifestyle of which I was constantly a part of, although I never had any liasons with my father (this was Africa during the late fifties and early sixties, I think charges about this sort of thing were severe judicially)I constantly had deep sensual dream sequences in which there was a lot of phallic imagery0 now if that aint homosexuality at say the age of three, four then I say I am incorrect in lifestyle.

  20. Again just lookin at the Gent in question as displayed above you can see hes got a real small jaw so he wouldnt be much good at gnawing on me bone, ya can also see he aint been ridden at all his ties too tight an hes gettin to old to attend the pony club!

  21. Yeah, I chose to be straight once upon a time. All it brought me was increasing unhappiness. I prayed to God to make me straight, but he wasn’t listening or that was one miracle that he didn’t want to perform!In the end, I stopped the denial, came out and have never been happier. We have fools like that here in Australia.

  22. Clearly, this knob is making the mistake of thinking that even gay men are able to get it up to have sex with a woman.

    Whilst I might well be able to manage that physically, I certainly don’t think I could handle that emotionally.

    Then again, that also suggests that his only reason for a woman is to fuck her. Any other time, she’s as useful as a wooden dick in a brothel.

    Lets face it, if we have the choice to fuck men or women, so do the heteros.!

  23. I kind of like the way he put it because i think that is the way most people see it as a choice. I dont think that alcoholism is a full choice but i fully think that people should be able to have the self control to not continue to drink. I think that a lot of close minded people look at sexuality the same way without realizing it…you might be attracted to guys but should be able to suppress it. By Buck saying this, as close minded as it is, it fully describes how many people look at it and it brings the idea to the forefront

  24. there is a belief that all people r born bisexual which makes sense as when we are kids we like everybody and we see everyone and treat people as the same. But as we grow older we either choose to be straight or gay or bi based on how you feel towards a certain sex i think a lot of closet gays choose to be straight to go with the norms. Now im not saying it is a choice but enviromental plus personal factors can come in play here. If you like kissing men instead of women so be it.

  25. @Jimmy T: OK, we get the fact you hate Republicans, but contrary to what you or the liberal fools who think the less-educated are Repubs, think again. Lest you forget the poor who feed off of taking that free ride via welfare and continue to live in housing projects and live off the system courtesy of taxpayers…a product of the Democratic socialist machine. I vote Independent, and believe there are good points from both sides of the political aisle. I am all for assisting people when in need. But living of off of welfare is not nor should ever be a lifestyle. Your foolish and irresponsible statement about the less-educated being attributed to political party affiliation serves no purpose. Simply, there’s enough idiots on both sides. There just happened to have been more less-educated knee-jerk reacting voters who put some dolt into the White House this time around.

  26. Well from his homophobic position I’m sure he does see it as a choice. You may be gay but you can choose to pretend that you aren’t and get married, have kids, come out, destroy lives and feel like a total failure…or you could just be proud of who you are and ignore those who try to say that you’re less than perfect exactly as you are. End discrimination…period.

  27. Being gay is not a choice, except in that you always have a choice on whether or not to ACT on your being gay.

  28. Attraction isn’t precisely a choice – it’s the inclination toward action which is pleasurable – though a person’s choices can inform what attracts them as their sexual identity evolves. Sexual behavior and identification – “lifestyle” – is always a choice, save in the event of rape or coercion, which are awful things that we should stop. Ultimately, whatever predisposition exists, it’s your experience (and the decisions that lead you to those experiences) that reinforces or negates it.

    There is nothing negative about this. If we’re products of nature, then an exceptionally strong argument can be made that homosexuality is a physiological disorder – and if genetic markers are ever positively identified, a congenital defect that’ll get little queer babies aborted all over the world on the dime of people who don’t believe that your life is your choice. Horrifying thought, right? Watch the news and see lines of bleating, breeding masses exercising the option that folks who give a damn about freedom won for them. I can think of no nightmare scenario that is more plausible or relevant to our world than that one.

    If, on the other hand, people stop getting offended at the suggestion that they choose to identify and act as gay, straight, bi, or whatever, then their choices can be celebrated as personal expression, and protected where such liberal ideas as free speech and human rights are upheld. It is considerably easier to defend a decision than a disease.

  29. The implication that anybody chooses his or her sexual orientation is too ridiculous for words. Doesn’t choice imply that one takes care selecting from a variety of options [alternatives]
    I wonder who [way back when] the male alternative to his wife was.
    Sadly even within the Gay community there are those who seem willing to accept that there is some merit to his assertions.

    Then again someone like Jason really scares me because he’d gladly give his vote to Ken Buck because, as he says: “I’m not a single issue voter and Bennett’s positions on the issues are a far greater threat to my freedoms and pocketbook than Buck’s are” As long as people keep thinking like Jason we [LBGT community] will never be able to form one strong force united in fighting uninformed, narrow minded and bigoted politicians like Ken Buck.

  30. Maybe for Ken Buck his birth might have had something to do about his alcohol problem and his hollier then thou upbringing, but having him get his cock sucked in a bookstore gloryhole, absolutly by choice.

    Ken Buck is a great example of why this country decided abortions where legal, to bad his mother didn’t get the message on time.

  31. I’ve been sexually attracted to Men AND Women but, I choose to be Homosexual because I don’t want to have children under this world’s circumstances. So, my sexuality is a personal “choice” PERIOD ! I find heterosexuality in this world to be a perversion since men & women are NOT true opposites (XX / XY) and the mating of the two can cause diseases and/or defects. So, I guess that makes me a better/nicer person/soul than those who choose heteroseuality in this perverse world. LOL

  32. I just want everyone to ask themselves and be honest . I sm a gay man. Choice or not but ask urself was ur first sexual experience was wit a man no matter what the case and also were Sexually abuse by someone if the same sex whether u like it or not it was both for me abused at a young age by a cousin and I like it but it was still abuse and my first sexually experience was him as well . Sometimes I think that made me gay. Just saying

  33. For anyone to actually say that being gay is a choice its implying that they are in fact gay and chose not to live that way and if not how the fuck would they know?

  34. for most people in question (i’m not counting those who are experimenting, or whatever), non-heterosexuality isn’t a choice.

    however, such individuals do have a choice of whether they want to act on those desires, or not.

    if i had a choice, i’d probably still be non-heterosexual — for, i believe, that very state-of-being is what has provided me with Empathy.

  35. I’ve grown weary of arguing this issue with idiots like Buck. Fortunately, if poll numbers are any indication, his Senate campaign is pretty much over. All of you Colorado residents… be SURE to get out and vote!

  36. NAVYSAUSAGE is spot on. Couldn’t have said it better my self (but I wouldn’t have been as polite.) Thanks Navy!!!

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