Testimony in Perry v. Schwarzenegger yesterday again demonstrate why it is so crucial to the Christianists and gay haters that the "choice myth" and "ex-gay myth" be perpetuated. Numerous posts on this blog and others such as Truth Wins Out have focused on the large amounts of funding poured into groups like Exodus International and other "ex-gay ministries" with the sole goal of throwing up a smoke screen that sexual orientation is a choice and, therefore, not an immutable trait which would make anti-gay discrimination a suspect activity from a constitutional law perspective. The anti-gay "family values" organizations realize that once the choice myth is full destroyed, their anti-gay legal agenda will likely be fatally wounded and, therefore, continue to find "ex-gays for pay" such as the fraudulent Michael Johnston and John Paulk. Here are highlights from the San Jose Mercury on yesterday's testimony:*
The plaintiffs' side in the legal challenge to California's ban on same-sex marriage concluded Friday, offering a final expert who spent a full day on the witness stand engaged in a debate over whether homosexuality is a product of nature or choice. Gregory Herek, a University of California-Davis psychology professor, testified that research for the most part sides with the theory that gays and lesbians have no choice in their sexual preference, a position confronted for more than five hours by a lawyer defending Proposition 8.
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The testimony went to a central competing theme in the standoff over gay marriage. Same-sex couples seeking the right marry maintain that homosexuality is an inherent characteristic, a factor that should extend constitutional protections to them as a minority group facing discrimination. Foes of same-sex marriage insist homosexuality is a social choice, not a biological characteristic deserving of the highest legal protections.*
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During Friday's proceedings, Proposition 8 attorney Howard Nielson Jr. spent the better part of the day trying to poke holes in Herek's assertions about the origins of sexual orientation. Invoking everyone from Sigmund Freud to one of the plaintiff couples suing over Proposition 8, Nielson attempted to show that gays and lesbians opt for their sexual preference at different points in their lives.
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But Herek kept pushing back, saying gays and lesbians typically do not come to terms with their sexual identity until after their youth because of society's emphasis on heterosexuality. That, he said, does not mean they choose their sexuality. "Most people report some consistency "... in their sexual orientation," he testified.
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The other obvious reason that Christianists so desperately seek to maintain the choice myth is because, if people are born gay, then God made us this way and their entire house of cards religious belief system begins to crumble.
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But Herek kept pushing back, saying gays and lesbians typically do not come to terms with their sexual identity until after their youth because of society's emphasis on heterosexuality. That, he said, does not mean they choose their sexuality. "Most people report some consistency "... in their sexual orientation," he testified.
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The other obvious reason that Christianists so desperately seek to maintain the choice myth is because, if people are born gay, then God made us this way and their entire house of cards religious belief system begins to crumble.
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