(CNN) -- After five years of trying to date girls and to conform and conceal his sexuality, 18-year-old Steven Field told his friends and family that he was gay.
Steven Field, now 25, came out to his friends and family when he was 18.
"I wasn't being honest to myself," Field, now 25, said of his closeted high school years in the suburbs of Chicago, Illinois.
Steven Field, now 25, came out to his friends and family when he was 18.
"I wasn't being honest to myself," Field, now 25, said of his closeted high school years in the suburbs of Chicago, Illinois.
Being gay was natural for him, Field, who lives in Washington, said in a Thursday phone interview. "I didn't choose to be gay anymore than straight people choose to be straight."
To those who would disagree with him, Field said, "You don't choose who you love."
Field is not alone in thinking that sexual orientation is a fixed element of a person. Whether homosexuality is innate or whether it is acquired -- the age-old nature versus nurture debate -- has long shaped the political and social discussion over gay rights.
Over the years, the genetically based argument has found increasing support among Americans, according to polls. More and more people now believe that homosexuality is a permanent, immutable part of a person, much like fingerprints or eye color.
According to a CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll released Wednesday, 56 percent of Americans believe that gays and lesbians could not change their sexual orientation even if they wanted to do so -- the first time that a majority has held that belief regarding homosexuality since CNN first posed the question nearly 10 years ago.
The sampling error for the results is plus or minus 4.5 percentage points.
Six years ago, 45 percent of Americans responding to a CNN/USA/Gallup Poll said gays and lesbians could not change their sexual orientation. And in 1998, the number was 36 percent, according to a CNN/Time poll.
The latest poll results affirmed what many gay and lesbians see as a shift in attitude across the country toward homosexuality. Even in the face of state legislation that denies gays the right to marry or to form civil unions, more Americans are now accepting of homosexuality, gays and lesbians say.
The term, feeling natural being gay, is the best way to sum up who we are. So if we can't change, the only thing left is to change the perception straights have for us. And that is slowing changing to our favor.
Hoping everyone had a super spectacular Canada Day, and Independence Day. Anyone shoot off extra fireworks that we should know about?
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9 comments:
Man, I love that "Feeling Natural Being Gay" thing.....makes me feel like running down and getting a t-shirt made, or a jock strap, or something. As for fireworks that you should know about....nope. But there were TONS that you should not know about.
Mmmmm...Luke Garrett. He is soooo horny.
As for the sexuality issue, I certainly didn't choose it - quite the opposite. I fought it for years, mainly to my own detriment.
So many of us fought being gay so very hard and long that to say we are just going through a phase or can change is asinine. I always ask the straight guy, "can you change and stop liking females and start liking males?" The answer of course is No Fucking way! I can't change either.
It's always made me wonder if the people that think it's a choice are bisexual - but the percentage seems too high for that.
Let us hope that the acceptance continues to move forward and does not regress.
Well said & it is great too see some positive movement in society!
"Long is the road, that our message must travel, to be gay is OK, so let it unravel"
after being married for close to 30 years, 2 kids, house in the burbs and the whole pic, done fighting, finally feel whole, true, "natural" and damn happy for once in my life, always knew, always did what society told us we had to do. so no, we can't change anymore than the straights can change. and i don't ever want to
There is a great French film called "Just a Question of Love" that says just that--you don't choose who you love. It's about 2 young guys that fall in love. One family says it doesn't matter because they love their son and want him to be happy; the other says its disgusting and kick him out of the house. Plus the boys are hot (although the hotter one's got a beard and nice hairy chest). Oh...and I was shooting all but fireworks for Independece Day :D
Who would choose to be ostracized by family, friends and society? To be a second class citizen in one of the most Democratic country's in the world? I sure as hell wouldn't. I never fought it, at 13 I told my cousin, I think I'm gay. She said are you sure? I said I'd think about it over night...next day called her and said, yep, I am. Never looked back.
Fortunately, I didn't loose any friends or family for coming out. ;-) peace
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