"Homosexuality is a choice" and its paradox

[Angrboda]

I'm reminded of the old saw that you can't reason someone out of a position that they didn't reason themselves into in the first place. Anti-homosexual theologies provide a rationalization for homophobia which the person already likely feels. Challenging the rationalization won't help, because it is the attitude holding the rationalization in place, not the rationale holding the attitude in place.

Recently there was a political battle over adding a marriage amendment to our state constitution. Typically, a lot of money is funneled into such battles by third party, pro-amendment forces. In our state, those fighting the amendment made an explicit choice of strategy that they would not frame the issue in terms of fairness and rights, although they could; instead, they focused on the personal angle of reminding people of friends and family in their life who would be affected, and how they would feel about that. By focusing on the feelings rather than the rational arguments, we were one of the few states in the country to defeat such an amendment.