This article was profoundly influenced by two events which happened in the previous week. First, the ‘gay incident’ in Zik hall and secondly Apple’s CEO, Tim Cook, public acknowledgement that he is gay. According to Cook, “I’m proud to be gay and I consider being gay among the greatest gifts God has given me”. Back in the days, I had a male friend who was more of a girl than any other girl I knew. He took interest in
feminine things. He could conveniently burst Beyonce or Shakira moves at parties. We played dress up together. We wore princess dresses, make up and painted our nails with polish. At night, he called guys pretending to be a girl and arranged meetings with them and then he would beg one of his female friends to accompany him to see his “date” and pretend the girl was him. He never had a history of dating girls, it got so bad, that his female friends were comfortable with being stark naked in front of him. The person in question has three brothers. Even with three male figures in his life, he had a gay side. This got me wondering, with the presence of many masculine figures at home, he could not be socially inclined to be gay. Could he have been born with the “gay gene”?
One of the arguments offered by the supporters of homosexuality is that homosexuality is an orientation people are born with. Homosexual men or women are born with the “gay gene”. A DNA study in the University of Chicago revealed two stretches of DNA linked to homosexuality in men. This strengthens the claim that homosexuality is decided by biology, not by choice. If this is true, that is, if homosexual desire is hardwired, we cannot change it, it would be unfair to judge these people, since it would be unfair to judge that which we cannot change.
Some Christians boldly assert that God did not create homosexual people “that way”, homosexuality violates the natural moral order established by God in paradise for our first parents. In the defense of the creation order argument, they say “God created Adam and Eve not Adam and Steve”. To strengthen their position, they often cite Jesus’ words in Matthew 19:4-5, where Jesus responds to a question about whether divorce is permissible. Jesus responded:
“Have you not read that the one who made them at the beginning made them male and female, and said “for this reason, a man shall leave his father and the two shall become one flesh…?”
Recently I stumbled on a website wouldJesusdescriminate.com and here they argued that Jesus in Matthew 19: 11-12, did say that some people were born gay.
“Not everyone can accept this teaching , but only those to whom it is given. For there are eunuchs who have been so from birth, and there are eunuchs who have been so from birth, and there are eunuchs who have been made eunuchs by others, and they are eunuchs who have made themselves eunuchs for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. Let anyone accept this who can”.
Eunuchs are men who may have been castrated and are unable to reproduce. This article is concerned with the first category of eunuchs. Religious homosexuals claim that Jesus could not be referring to men born without testicles because this would be a rare phenomenon. The term “born eunuchs” was used in the ancient world to refer to homosexual men. They argue that Jesus indicates that been a “born eunuch” is a gift from God. The common factor with gay men and castrated men and gay men, which could be the basis of categorizing them as eunuch is that neither of them is suitable for marriage.
I am sure many people especially Christians are uncomfortable with this position, but let us play a game. Let us pretend that our sexual orientation is innate, that people are born with the “gay gene”, that homosexuality is morally acceptable because it is natural to them. If this is true then it is also possible that some people are born with the “straight gene”, these people have tendencies of opposing homosexuality and should not be judged since they are also born that way. I am in no way saying that homosexuality should be morally acceptable and I am not asserting that Jesus acknowledges the “gay gene”. I am simply of the perspective that the basis for homosexuality is not clear. Is homosexuality by choice or by genetics?
Love,
Poison Ivy
