Culturally Conditioned and Genetically Predispositioned This Way:
Why Not to Say, “ I Was Born This Way”:
1. It’s not true for everyone. Sexuality can change over time. Some people go through phases, and some people just want to experiment. That doesn’t make their experience any less authentic or worth defending.
2. It’s not true for anyone. We weren’t born “gay, straight, or bi, lesbian, transgender life”—those are labels. Denying cultural influence not only simplifies sexuality and gender, it also discourages the evaluation of how society affects our experience of them.
3. It’s a shitty argument. Serial killers might be born serial killers, and at best that will land them in a mental hospital instead of prison—but it doesn’t change our view that murder is wrong.
I think most people who think about sexuality have already thought about everything I’ve just said. A lot of advocates recognize that a “born this way” argument is a simplification, but they also recognize that it’s a catchy slogan.
I’m not denying that sexual orientation has a large genetic component. And in the face of, for example, the ex-gay movement, emphasizing genetics makes sense. But reducing something as complicated as human sexuality to a catchphrase is sloppy. Being “born this way” is an argument too easily dismissed by anybody who can observe the effects personal and cultural experiences have on identity.
And now I swear I’ll stop preaching and go back to making my emo comics.
