"You clutch to a book that says God can't make sin, but if I was truly born gay, that is just what he has done, correct?"

Nobody ever said that "God can't make sin". In fact, the Bible tells us that we are all born in sin. IOW, we are sinful by our very nature.

"Some choose to explain it as something that must be changed through ex-gay ministries, yet a huge ammount of graduates from such programs end up manic depressive or sicidal."

Being gay is a sin through God's eyes, and so is stealing, lying, committing adultery, extortion, sexual promiscuity, and the list goes on. Why should gays be the only sinners, once they come out, who get suicidal for eradicating their sinful lifestyles. The real reason gays get suicidal is bc they don't want to admit that they are wrong, and they would rather die than submit to God.

"Too often is the Bible taken as God's word. Understand I am exactly who God wants me to be, and this was absolutely not a choice."

If God wants you to be gay, why does He constantly speak against it?????

:) AnonymousJane_01

"Is it truly God's work to make his children hate themselves and strip them of the rights he gave them?"

No, of course not. There's so much I'd like to say to you, but I'm not feeling very articulate right now... Just know that God loves you unconditionally, whatever your sexual orientation. Don't let any person on Earth tell you otherwise.

since the biblical aspect of this issue is often abused, i will mention the other two perspectives that i have of this issue.

we all have free will. i will never, ever believe a person is born gay. there are a myriad of factors that can influence a person in this direction. the more socially acceptable it is, the more of these influences abound. i can tell you that most men have gotten horny involving a guy. most think the worst of themselves for it and repress it and get defensive about it. these are the homophobes that gay people relish in pointing fingers at and calling them closet gays. to have deep affection for one of the same sex is normal and healthy. to eroticise this affection is unhealthy, both emotionally and physically(spiritually, too, but that has already been discounted by you). there is just not enough acceptance of displays of affection between men and are often frowned upon, even in the straightest of circumstances. my friends learn right away that their hand is not enough. if i like someone, i greet them with a hug. in a different society they would get a kiss too, but i dont push it.

i have also seen the most effeminate men who are straight, married and with children. i am talking about pastel wearing, limp wristed, lisping so bad they give you a shower to talk with you and straight as an arrow. in fact, i must give some kind of signals off, i guess, because i have been hit on many times in my life, especially when i was younger.

another aspect of this is nature. it speaks for itself, yet some people try to twist it and point to any little abberant behavior in a species as saying this is natural. i will tell you when same sex erotica is normal - when the population is under adverse pressures due to overpopulation. the stress of living this way invites all kinds of behavior which helps people cope, like drug addiction and anti-social behavior. it also doesnt help that we are inundated with plant and chemical estrogens in our food and environment, causing a lot of hormonal imbalance.

i have it on some very good sources that most gay guys like girls, but they do not want to admit it. and that the choice to be gay is not one of necessity, but one of convenience. i see it as a personality disorder, much akin to narcissism. i believe the homosexual male is not born, but certainly is created long before the age of accountability(12). this gives the impression that the person is born this way. it is an understandable condition, but it is not a healthy one. i believe it was a mistake to take homosexuality out of the DSM.

i am of the opinion that one only has those rights that they extend to others. i do not wished to be chastised for exercising my free will, so i dont chastise others for theirs. peoples sex lives are really none of anyone elses business.

as a parent, i have a huge problem with the conversation in america right now about homosexuality. the entire subject invites only one thing - sex. and as far as i am concerned, this sexual conversation is taking indecent liberties with children, and that is a crime.

Comico- I thank you for posting your message and sharing a part of your story. It is a terrible shame that your family abandoned you. They have no idea what they have missed out on.

I read your message and the many replies you received. I can't say that I am all that surprised, although it is dismaying to know that people still have such misguided notions. Yet, they have not walked in our shoes and have not had the opportunity to learn the lessons we have in life. Again, their loss. If I could share but a few words (I hardly ever use just a few), this is what I would say:

Just like Comico, I am gay. I know what it is like to feel different from everyone else. I know exactly what it means to say I did not choose this. There was no choice. The only choice I had to make was whether I would continue to deny my true feelings and hide in misery and Depression or to free myself from my fears. The fear of losing my family, of upsetting God or being ostracized by my society. Sad and depressed I made the choice that I wanted to live and be happy and so I chose to express my truth, that I was Gay. Most of the straight world out there have no idea the courage it takes for each and every one of us who are gay to make the decision and the choice to live our lives according to our hearts and not according to your misguided and misplaced notions of God. You so easily explain this away by saying it is all about sex. You try to judge us based on this false belief, but all you do is judge yourself. We make this decision to love ourselves and be free. Not for sex, but for love. Can you even understand that? Love was behind my choice. I want to expereince and know the love that each of you take for granted so easily. All you have to do is love another. For the most part, you don't have to be concerned about what your family might think, what your church might think or even more what society may think. You have the choice to love, to be married in a church and have that marriage recognized by a court of law. All these things are taken for granted.

Within the last decades in this country marriage as an institution has fallen to the waste side. The divorce rates have skyrocketed, unwed mothers are a norm, and so many other couples don't even bother to get married out of an overwhelming fear of divorce and separation. And yet, who has become one of the greatest proponents and champions of this institution. The gay community. We are here not only saying we beleive in marriage, but we are asking a government that was founded on the principles of freedom and equality for all to provide us with this right. And you have the nerve to deny us. Again, how easily you take marriage for granted. Instead of denying us the right to marry, why aren't you out there preaching marriage to your children. Why aren't you out there being married and faithful to your spouse and providing an example for your children to follow?

Yes, I know. We aren't born gay. We choose to be gay out of an unquenching thirst for sex. Sex. Sex. Sex. What a tired argument that is. If it was all about sex, why would gay couples even bother to get married. Why would they choose a relationship that would ask them to be manogamous and refrain from willful sex. Hmm. Maybe because there is more going on here than you allow your eyes to see. Maybe so many of you are so preoccupied with sex that you don't have the ability to see the love that exists. When a man and a man or a woman and a woman stand together to be married, they do so in order to express their love for one another in the eyes for their friends, community and God. They are not there to express sex. Every single human being has an innate urge to love and be loved. That love is expressed through an intimate physical exchange we call sex. However, love is an emotion, a feeling, an energy, an experience that goes way beyond sex.

As a heterosexual couple you are allowed to express that love freely and have that love recognized by the U.S. government. There are articles almost on a daily basis calling for states to ban same-sex marriage and even a possible constitutional amendment to institutionalize your so-called notion of traditional marriage. From a legal and constitutional standpoint, the gay community has every right to marry. To withold this right is a direct legal challenge to that constitution. The founders of our constitution created this document in order to protect the rights of all citizens of this country from a government that could easily abuse and take advantage of its citizenry as was so easily experienced with the British monarchy. But what are these rights? What does it truly mean to ahve rights. We have had our brothers, fathers and friends die to protect those rights. Simply put it is the right to live, to live free and to live happily. Taking away my right to marry a man who I love completely and utterly is taking away my right to live, to live freely and to live happily.

But wait a mintue. It seems I have left something out. What about God? Doesn't God say that homsoexuality is a sin. Does God not say in the bible that it is an abomination? I hate to tell you but GOD is not found in your bible. I find God within me, within you and within every person living in this world right now in this moment. I find God in the air I breathe, the water I drink and the food I eat for these are all God's creations. I find God in the majesty and awe of the world around me while standing on a beautiful mountain or while sitting quietly in a neighborhood park. Keep looking for God in a book that has been translated, mistranslated, interpreted, misinterpreted and used to further the unrighteous causes of so many fear filled people throughout the ages and tell me you know God. It is unfortunate that so many of us were taught to beleive in an old-testament type of God full of wrath and punishment. The God that saved Noah, his family and some animals, but killed millions of others. The God that forced the Israelites to wonder for hundreds of years in the desert searching for a new home only to ask them to continually sacrifice of themselves. How many countless stories are in the bible that show God to be a fierce, unloving, vengeful person. Characteristics that are more human than divine. Aren't they? Isn't it time we stopped creating God in our image. It was never meant to be that way.

I must tell you that my journey in life as a gay man has freed me from this notion of God. I now know God for who God truly is, love. Every single thing, not just in this world, but in this entire universe is God. In the beginning there was God. And God created everything. God created everyting from God's self. Therefore everything is of God. You are of God, I am of God, Comico is of God, we all are. But if it is easier to live in a world full of sin, and hell and punishment then that is your choice and you have that right. You can beleive anything you want about God or about being gay. In the end, none of that really matters. But do not use those RELIGIOUS beliefs, your personal beleifs, to deny me me my LEGAL right to live freely in what I choose to believe and how I choose to live my life as I have the same rights as you, no more, no less.

I beleive that I, a gay man, was created directly by God.

I beleive that as a gay man, God loves me completely without condition.

I believe that it is my expresed right to love another man and have that love recognized legally by the U.S. Government.

I believe that that U.S. Constitution by the very intent of its creation protects that right.

I beleive that with that right protected and made known, I can live. I can live freely and I can live happily.

-Thomas

Hello comico120,

I'm sorry to hear that your family doesn't recognize for what you are as a being. In fact they should expand their horizons to accept you so that they can experience universal love that God gives to anyone.

To tell you the truth about being born gay, there's some truth in it. About myself, I'm gay as well, but wondered myself why I was gay, so I searched within, asking myself, even meditated/contemplated the situation/feelings at that time and discovered that I was born gay to experience the other side of the coin.
If you believe in "reincarnation" concept, then what I'm telling you might make sense up to a point. In fact everyone is a soul who has incarnated into a human body to experience the human live so that the soul can experience the broad horizons and experiences that a human life can offer to help in the ascension of the soul. So in the end I'm gay in this life to expand my horizons and experience this side of my life and even experience the universal lofe that comes with it from that perspective. So I think being born gay is just a choice made before incarnating in the current life. So why not experience this life the way I want to be/choose to expand my horizons and offer unconditional/universal love.

I hope I'm making any sense.

Anonymous reader