Is Homosexuality Genetic?

Apparently Rick Perry, who is doubtless going to run for President in a couple of years, thinks homosexuality has a genetic component.

Homosexual activists have claimed for years now that there is a "gay gene".

So why is Perry being attacked for agreeing with that proposition?

The very reasonable folks at Gay Patriot (h/t) explain it all quite well.


More or less, what Perry said echoes the old saw about astrology and the stars, which, like genes, "incline; they do not compel":

"Whether or not you feel compelled to follow a particular lifestyle or not, you have the ability to decide not to do that," Perry said. "I may have the genetic coding that I'm inclined to be an alcoholic, but I have the desire not to do that, and I look at the homosexual issue the same way."

As a natural-born alcoholic, I understand that perfectly.  My mother used to tell how her father, my maternal grandfather, would get hauled home dead drunk, often in a neighbor's conveyance, any time they went to a fair or carnival or other venue where alcohol was available.  My mother never drank.

Mom told my wife she would need to watch me with liquor as "he has it on both sides."  My father got into a little moonshine-related trouble on a few occasions.  He once said he had not been drunk since he was 30.  I'm about the same.  Dad and I learned to deal with our tendency to overindulge.  Grandpa never did.    

Alcohol causes a lot of problems for a lot of people.  I don't drink anymore.  Nevertheless, I would be against any attempts to reinstate Prohibition -- not just because it didn't work and caused more problems than it solved, but because it's not right.  People ought to be able to do what they like as long as they injure no one else in the process.

I have never really understood the appeal of homosexuality.  I like girls.  I am sure those who are tempted to homosexual behavior find it just as much of a challenge as I used to trying to avoid bad heterosexual behavior. 

Still, we can always decide how we are going to live, act, and behave.  I respect the rights of other people.  I may not agree with their choices, but they are their choices, not mine.  I won't try to make your choices, and if you don't try to make mine, we'll get along fine.  Common courtesy is civilization.