Christian and an Ally | Why Being Gay is Okay ✓

Are There Any Other Anti-Gay Arguments?

In this chapter, I want to wrap up any loose ends. If I find more in the future, I may create more chapters making sure that I address them!

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Myth: Being gay is caused by childhood sexual abuse.

Facts: As I've mentioned before, sexuality is a complicated thing, so there are probably many factors involved to someone's orientation. However, there hasn't been any definitive proof that sexual abuse "causes" one's sexual orientation.

Some studies have found a correlation between childhood sexual abuse and being gay, while an equal number of studies have not. BUT, as I learned this semester in psychology class, correlation does not imply causation. Simply stated, just because two variables are correlated (i.e. "related") doesn't mean that one caused the other. For example, from 1999 to 2010, the marriage rate in Kentucky was strongly correlated with the number of people in the world who drowned after falling out of a fishing boat. Does that mean that the marriage rate in Kentucky caused people to drown, or that people drowning by falling out of fishing boats caused more marriages in Kentucky? Of course not! So even if there was a correlation between childhood sexual abuse and being gay, which has not been proven to be true, that doesn't mean that one caused the other. (For more crazy correlations, Google "spurious correlations"; there are tons of other examples out there!)

That being said, there are other reasons why this claim is problematic. For one, the numbers don't add up. Only about 4% of the US population identifies as a part of the LGBTQ+ community, and that statistic includes all other sexualities and gender identities, not just gay people. However, 16% of men and 27% of women were sexually abused as children, meaning that the vast majority of survivors of child sexual abuse are heterosexual.

For another, it is possible that the relation goes the other way around: that being a part of the LGBTQ+ community makes children more likely to be sexually abused by the adults in their life, taking advantage of their confusion and insecurities. However, once again, the correlation between the two variables has not been proven, and even if it was, correlation does not imply causation. This myth is decidedly false.

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Myth: Being gay is caused by a lack of proper role models, parents, and/or other guardian figures of the same sex.

Facts: Once again, sexual orientation is a complex thing, and there isn't any one singular variable that causes somebody to be heterosexual over homosexual or vice versa. Just as studies have shown that children with gay parents are no different than children with the traditional father-mother unit (I addressed this in the last chapter), there is no proof that lacking "proper" parental role models of one sex or the other has any bearing on one's sexual orientation.

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Myth: Hate crime laws will lead to pastors/priests/religious figures being thrown in jail for preaching against homosexuality.

Facts: The First Amendment was written for a reason, and one of those reasons was to protect our freedom of speech. At least here in the US, religious figures will never have to fear being arrested for preaching against homosexuality.

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Myth: Once homosexuality is accepted, things like bestiality and pedophilia will be next.

Facts: I addressed this myth two chapters ago, but I felt as though it needed to be said twice. I don't believe in the idea of the "slippery slope of sin," but either way, it does not apply in this case. There are good reasons why bestiality and pedophilia are not accepted by society: bestial sex is animal abuse and cruelty; pedophilic sex is child abuse and rape; incest is bad for the gene pool and linked to physical and psychological problems. On the other hand, homosexual sex is consensual and unproblematic. Accepting homosexuality will NOT mean accepting things like bestiality or pedophilia.

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Myth: Gay people are detrimental to the US armed forces.

Facts: Despite claims that soldiers would leave the armed forces if women were allowed to serve, virtually none of them did. Along the same vein, letting gay people serve openly in the army did not reduce the ranks. Nor has allowing gay people to serve openly since 2011 done any harm to the armed forces. In fact, the US military is ranked far above any other in the world, and the US spends more money on its military than the next nine countries on the list combined!

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Myth: Gay people controlled the Nazi party and helped execute the Holocaust.

Facts: Seriously?! How do people come up with this stuff?!

Repeat after me: gay people were prosecuted and targeted by the Nazis. The Nazi Party considered homosexuality another form of "degeneracy" that needed to be eradicated, along with Jews, gypsies, and the mentally and physically disabled. I think this quote from Heinrich Himmler sums up the Nazis' views on gay people:

"We must exterminate these people root and branch. ... We can't permit such danger to the country; the homosexual must be completely eliminated."

There was no room for the LGBTQ+ community in Nazi Germany, so please educate yourself before making false, incendiary claims such as this myth!