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I'm probably going to get eviscerated for this, but that sexuality is purely genetic. I think that for the vast majority of people, sexuality is way more fluid than not, and much more influenced by environment than people would like to think.
I also don't think that has any bearing on people's right to choose.
It's not thought to be genetic otherwise it would be heritable and its clearly not. It would also have self extinguished before too long if it ever got a foothold in the first place.
It's likely a construction issue having something to do with something that happens in the womb rather than to do with the blueprints.
As a member of the LGBTQ community, I fully agree.
I’ve believed that we are a mix of nature and nurture for as long as I can remember, and it stands to reason that sexuality is a part of that. I also think the vast majority of people are far more sexually fluid than they would admit due to cultural stigma. Not everyone is bi, but I do think there’s a bell curve.
That said. I do also believe that people are born the way they are and the nurture aspect is more of a determining factor for how they express not who they are. I was raised and socialized as a straight male but realized in my 30’s that I’m queer and non-binary. Realizing that put so much context to the struggles I had growing up on a Christian environment and solidified for me that this is who I am, despite how I was nurtured. But had I not gotten out of the religion, I’d have never changed and just silently suffered and struggled until I died. My expression wouldn’t have changed who I am, only how I acted.
You can believe what you want to believe, you didn't say it in a hateful way at all.
I'm curious about what your opinion would be of trans people going through HRT though. When starting hormone therapy you are warned of potential changes to your sexuality. I am transfem, and prior to transitioning I was bi. Since starting HRT, I tend to have an aversion to men sexually and am more lesbian aligned now.
I guess that is fluidity and environmental factors, but biological factors even still.
Other people meanwhile experience the opposite effect (which is what I expected) or none at all.
Not who you asked, but I feel it's more of a social thing in myself. HRT has biological effects, but I don't think I'd be doing it in the first place if gender wasn't such a construct to begin with. I believe the sexuality changes are mainly social as well. There's the transmasc meme that T makes you more gay, but I don't think it makes us gay so much as make us more attracted to gay/bi men who actually validate our gender identities, whereas pre-transition, many of us avoided straight men who simply viewed us as female.
I don't know about transitioning, other than I probably would have thought I was trans if I'd been born later. I'm glad I wasn't told I'd have to go through surgery and hormone replacements to be what I truly am. I was able to define my gender for myself.
But I don't think anyone can judge another person's choices like that. I just look forward to the day when people are allowed to freely make choices about how they live their own lives. I don't think either political side is terribly flexible. (Though certainly, the right is far more rigid.)
I've seen too many people ostracized for changing their minds about being trans or changing their sexuality by people they thought were open-minded friends. Or people hated on for changing their faith by those who pretend to follow a loving God. It's painful all around. We shouldn't have to agree with someone on every point to celebrate and adore them.
Just wanted to pop in here and say: no one is being told they have to go through surgery and hormone replacements to be who they are. In fact, things are changing in the opposite direction. There used to be laws requiring physical surgeries to be able to legally change one's gender but those have mostly been removed.
The options are there and are becoming more widely available and easier to access for those who want them. They are major life choices that aren't taken lightly. I can tell you right now, if you weren't trans then, you wouldn't be now either. You would be suffering and begging for treatment, not stumbling into it out of mere curiousity.
It's not curiosity. I never felt like my gender. I've always been a fish out of water, and been extremely uncomfortable in my body. The way trans people describe feeling is how I've felt for the majority of my life.
But in the years since, I've come to terms with who I am and what my body is. I no longer feel the need to make it be anything other than what it is.
Statistically its a microscopic portion a fraction of 1% who regret transitioning which tends to suggest social contagion isn't a thing either.
Statistically its a microscopic portion a fraction of 1% who regret transitioning which tends to suggest social contagion isn't a thing either.
1% regret it and a small number of those actually go on to reverse it.
https://apnews.com/article/transgender-treatment-regret-detransition-371e927ec6e7a24cd9c77b5371c6ba2b