Religion and LGBT people

[Esquilax]

Can you change your orientation at will?

That's the million dollar question, John. Can you make a conscious decision to alter your sexual orientation? If so, when did you decide to be straight? Did you weigh up your options? Ever gotten curious about the other side? Ever switched orientations for a second, just to see what it's like?

Seriously, if you think it's a choice, when did you make yours, and what was the thought process like? I'm genuinely curious here, since it's news to me that other people got to choose, and you seem to be pretty special, since you've got three people here intimating that they never had a choice either. It must be your superpower!

But let's go deeper: I'm bi. I like both sexes so if anyone here can be accused of having a choice, it's me. But I still don't: though I can be attracted to both sexes, generally speaking my tastes lean more towards women, and I can't change that. I even have days where I just want one over the other, and I can't alter those either. It's not a choice, and you know it. Pointing to instances of sexual confusion is not the same thing.

But hey, that's not all! Let's take a look at your premise that sexuality is something that's determined in adolescence, shall we? Now, if it's a conscious choice then you'll be able to illuminate us as to the nature of yours, as we already discussed. If it isn't, how could it possibly be a choice at all? What kind of choice is mutable only for a certain period of time, and then locked in from there on out? And in that case, does that make homosexuality sinful during those formative years when it is a choice, but not a sin afterwards when it's locked in?

Or are you, perhaps prudently, implying that rather than being a conscious choice- a position that you know is untenable and that's why you refuse to answer the question we're all posing to you- that sexuality is determined by developmental factors in adolescence? In that case, isn't it also largely beyond individual control? How is that a choice? How could that possibly be sinful?

We've really got you every which way, John. Now, please do tell: when did you choose to be straight? When did you make this momentous and binding selection as to your sexuality, and have you ever succumbed to curiosity about the other side?

Further, do you ever get concerned when you hear literally everyone else ever expressing that they didn't have a choice? Do you get lonely, being the only sexual polymorph?