Is there really such a thing as a “gay lifestyle?” It is a phrase
used over and over again by both those within and outside the queer community.
A “lifestyle” is the manner by which a person chooses to live their lives. The
key word is “choose.” Do queer people choose their lifestyle? It depends on how
one is using the phrase contextually. In a general sense we all have a
lifestyle that inherently belongs to us, and is one that we choose to live. My
lifestyle involves waking up in the morning, having my morning coffee while I
surf the web and chat with friends on gay.com. I go to work, earn money to pay
the mortgage and other bills and hopefully have a little left over. These are
all voluntary actions and are part of what comprises my lifestyle.
However it is
an erroneous assumption to carry this logic to one’s sexuality. It is not a choice.
The insistence of some that being queer is a choice and that one can change the
way they were born causes, many times, irreparable damage to one’s psyche,
self-esteem and their sense of who they truly are. It causes one to live a life
that is not theirs, to create a façade, a lie that envelops the true essence of
who they are.
Denying one’s very being is epitomized in a quote
that I often reference. “The torment of human frustration, whatever its
immediate cause, is the knowledge that the self is in prison, its vital force
leaking away in wasteful self-conflict.” Many queer persons live two lives.
They are in prison not due to their own doing but for what society dictates
them to be and how they should act. They waste their lives, their inherent
potential, and their vital life force, on worrying about hiding themselves.
Wasteful self-conflict is being torn between those that say we can choose who
we are versus living our lives as we were born to as out, proud, productive
individuals who just happen to have many of the same lifestyles as everyone
else, except that we love another of the same sex.
So no, there
is no such thing as the “gay lifestyle.” There is no choice involved. We are
who we are born to be. We cannot change that. Do not let anyone tell you any
different!
SOURCE: GAY AGENDA
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