Hard Decision
About a month and a half ago, I told my mom I was gay. The reaction I received from a catholic, Mexican, most stubborn, and ignorant woman fell none too short from what I expected. Her world, her view of her son, was crumbled. She held in her tears showing her inner strength. As she calmed down, she asked, "Why do you want to be like this?" I explained as best I could to a stubborn person, that being gay was an innate quality of my psychological, biological, and genetic makeup. I said, "It is not my choice." Who in their right mind choose to be gay with all the prejudices, fears and violent acts directed toward gays by society? Therefore, one's gayness is not a choice. I am gay and so are a lot of others. As the world sees it, in some way or another that I have yet to understand, our sexual lifestyles not only determine what we are, but who we are as well. My mom and society see gay men and women as people who have same sex relationships. Society has decided that being gay is a sexual preference, one's sexual orientation, that he or she is a homosexual. Yet society does not apply the same logic for straight men and women. They do not consider themselves to have a sexual preference, but they do consider themselves to be heterose
Being straight and gay are innate qualities that no one has control over. People, however, do have control over who their sexual partners are, including straight men and women. In this case sexual preference would be appropriate, because after all, I do have the choice of who might be my partner. For example, "I choose to eat chocolate rather than vanilla, but I do not choose to prefer chocolate to vanilla. One simply discovers what one prefers" (Parker). It is possible for a gay person to sleep with the opposite sex, but that does not change the fact that he is gay. "...I chose to get married... and stayed married for 16 years in an effort to deny my inner reality" (Warren). The same possibility exists for a straight individual to have a same sex experience. "We recognize that people can choose to engage in sexual acts that are contrary to their sexual orientation. Gay people can choose to have heterosexual sex and heterosexual people can choose to have homosexual sex" (Ficera).! Ficera, Kim Queer By Choice. 2000. New Mass. Media, Inc. yself into uncomfortable situations.Warren, Patricia Nell Choice in Sexual Orientation: The Sword That Cuts Both Ways. 1997. Wildcat Press. ----------------------------------------------
Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 904
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)
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