The Gay Gene-A Moral Question
Recently, I watched an older episode of Law and Order, Special Victims Unit. This particular episode had a couple that went to a doctor who could provide a simple blood test that could determine if their unborn child would have the “gay gene”. So with studies and books coming out about how the combination of both parents’ genes can play a part in whether a child is born gay or straight I figured I dissect the premise of the episodes argument.
Part of the argument is if expecting parents had to option to discover their unborn child had a high percentage of being gay, would most abort and eventually produce a “homosexual genocide?”
On a positive note, it’s a great victory for the gay community to actually have the proof our sexual orientation was no more a choice than the color of our eyes and skin. On the flip side, it gives the public and governments around the world, a choice to completely wipe out the gay population in the not so distance future.
I’m not saying all of them, but I truly believe many individuals of different faith/dominations would easily flip on their self-righteous beliefs to make “exceptions” in their stance against abortion. Possibly to prove to the world, once and for all, that being gay is for worse than, (according to their rhetoric) killing a baby (fetus). Sadly, most pro-life supporters believe this extremist propaganda, and deem the gays a far worse enemy than anything else this world has created. Gays are the less tolerated group of individuals in the world.
Lets think about if one day soon, it could be determined if your unborn child will be a drug addict, mentally ill, handicapped or eventually die of cancer or god forbid be a serial killer. What if the science couldn’t predict how severe the case? What if it just gave a 20%chance?
Now this is a touchy subject, because it also plays into Roe vs. Wade. Now, I believe in a woman’s right to choose and always have. But is there any difference if a woman wants to terminate her pregnancy because she is either ill, raped, not ready, too young, or because she doesn’t want to have a gay, sick, or addicted child? Caucasian women have aborted for the very reason of being pregnant with part African-American fetuses in the past due to society views and fear of families disowning them—And it was their choice in most cases.
Will the liberal pro-choice supporters and gays be okay with an apparent discrimination toward any fetus and still be back Roe vs Wade? Or maybe, I should be honest and say there should be conditions that apply to abortion. But if conditions apply, more illegal abortions will be preformed and more deaths will be a result. So, I say, if it’s the woman’s choice--then let it be, but lets not let fear, governments or religious bullies determine what is deemed desirable for us.
What could happen is a higher degree of gay bashing and self-loathing. Children born with the gay gene, to conservative parents that did know of their child’s sexual orientation during pregnancy and do not believe in homosexuality or abortion, run a risk of taking their self-hatred out on the very people that they are. Not uncommon of what happens a lot today, but possibly more and more frequent if the option to identify a probable gay gene of a fetus becomes available.
So, my question is: what would you do if you knew your unborn child was going to have a certain percentage of being gay? Would you abort? Would you have the child and create a self loathing in them, and try to “fix” them? Or would you love them unconditionally, and let them be who they are?
I’m glad, that I have the Mom I do, because as much as she thinks I’m “confused” she would never abort me if she knew I was going to be gay/addict/mental. Those things do not define me as an individual. I am so much more than those three small portions of who I am. I’ve done badly, but I’ve done a lot of good as well. Now, if it were up to my father (who abandoned me at the age of 3) if I had lived or died had he known before hand I was going to be a lesbian…I think you wouldn’t be reading me right now, but some other queer that got lucky and lived.
Thanks for reading.
Below is a list of famous gays in histories past and present. You might be surprised.
*Macedonian Ruler, 300 B.C.
Socrates
*Greek Philosopher, 400 B.C.
Sappho
*Greek Woman Poet, 600 B.C.
Hadrian
*Roman Emperor, 1st-2nd c.
Richard the Lionhearted
*English King, 12th c.
Saladin
*Sultan of Egypt and Syria
Desiderius Erasmus
*Dutch Monk, Philosopher
Francis Bacon
*English statesman, author
Frederick the Great
*King of Prussia
Lord Byron
*English poet, 18th c.
Walt Whitman
*U.S. poet, author, 19th c.
Oscar Wilde
*Irish author, 19th c.
Marcel Proust
*French author, 20th c.
Colette
*French author, 20th c.
Gertrude Stein
*U.S. poet, author, 20th c.
Alice B. Toklas
*U.S. author, 20th c.
Federico Garcia Lorca
*Spanish author, 20th c.
Cole Porter
*U.S. composer, 20th c.
Virginia Woolf
*English author, 20th c.
Leonard Bernstein
*U.S. composer, 20th c.
Pope Julius III
*1550-1555
T.E. Lawrence
*English soldier, author, 20th c.
Jean Cocteau
*French writer, director, 20th c.
Charles Laughton
*English actor, 20th c.
Marguerite Yourcenar
*Belgian author, 20th c.
Tennessee Williams
*U.S. Playwright, 20th c.
James Baldwin
*U.S. author, 20th c.
Andy Warhol
*U.S. artist, 20th c.
Michelangelo
*Italian artist, 15th c.
Leonardo Da Vinci
*Ital. Artist, scientist, 15th c.
Christopher Marlowe
*Eng. Playwright, 16th c.
Herman Melville
*U.S. author, 19th c.
Horatio Alger, Jr.
*U.S. author, 19th c.
Tchaikovsky
*Russian composer, 19th c.
Willa Cather
*U.S. author, 19th c.
Amy Lowell
*U.S. author, 19th & 20th c.
E.M. Forster
*English author, 20th c.
John M. Keynes
*English economist, 20th c.
Ludwig Wittgenstein
*Australian mathematician, 20th c.
Bessie Smith
*U.S. singer, 20th c.
Noel Coward
*English playwright, 20th c.
Christopher Isherwood
*English author, 20th c.
Pier Paolo Pasolini
*Italian film director, 20th c.
Yukio Mishima
*Japanese author, 20th c.
Eleanor Roosevelt
*U.S. stateswoman, 20th c.
Julius Caesar
*Roman Emperor, 100-44 B.C.
Augustus Caesar
*Roman Emperor
Harvey Milk
*U.S. politician, 20th c.
Bayard Rustin
*U.S. Civil Rights activist, 20th c.
James I
*English King, 16th-17th c.
Queen Anne
*English Queen, 18th c.
Marie Antoinette
*French Empress, 18th c.
Melissa Etheridge
*U.S. Rock Star, 20th c.
Pope Benedict IX
*1032-1044
May Sarton
*U.S. author, (1912 - 1995)
Edna Ferber
*U.S. author, 20th c.
Elton John
*English Rock Star, 20th c.
Margaret Fuller
*U.S. writer, educator, 20th c.
Montezuma II
*Aztec ruler, 16th c.
Peter the Great
*Russian Czar, 17th-18th c.
Langston Hughes
*U.S. author, 20th c.
Pope John XII
*955-964
Madame de Stael
*French writer, 17th-18th c.
Martina Navratilova
*U.S. tennis star, 20th c.
Greg Louganis
*U.S. Olympic swimmer, 20th c.
Billie Jean King
*U.S. tennis star, 20th c.
Roberta Achtenburg
*U.S. politician, 20th c.
Barney Frank
*U.S. Congressman, 20th c.
Gerry Studds
*U.S. Congressman, 20th c.
Hans Christian Andersen
*Danish author, 19th c.
Tom Dooley
*U.S. M.D. missionary, 20th c.
J. Edgar Hoover
*U.S. director of the FBI., 20th c.
Frida Kahlo
*Mexican artist, 20th c.
Suleiman the Magnificent
*Ottoman ruler, 15th c.
Rock Hudson
*U.S. actor, 20th c.
Sor Juana Ines de la Cruz
*Mexican author, 16th c.
Ralph Waldo Emerson
*U.S. author, 19th c.
Candace Gingrich
*Gay Rights activist, 20th c.
Margarethe Cammermeyer
*U.S. Army Colonel, 20th c.
Zoe Dunning
*U.S. Military Reservist, 20th c.
Tom Waddel
*U.S. M.D., Olympic star, 20th c.
Kate Millet
*U.S. author, 20th c.
Janis Joplin
*U.S. singer, 20th c.
Rudolf Nuryev
*Russian dancer, 20th c.
Waslaw Nijinsky
*Russian dancer, 20th c.
Ernst Röhm
*German Nazi leader, 20th c.
Dag Hammerskjold
*Swedish UN Secretary, 209th c.
Aristotle
*Greek philosopher, 384-322 B.C.
Paula Gunn Allen
*Native American author, 20th c.
Angela Davis
*U.S. political activist, 20th c.
June Jordan
*U.S. author, activist, 20th c.
Rainer Maria Rilke
*German poet, 20th c.
James Dean
*U.S. actor, 20th c.
Montgomery Clift
*U.S. actor, 20th c.
Baron VonSteuben
*German General, Valley Forge
Edward II
*English King, 14th c.
Categories: Science, Health, Life, gay rights, morality
Tags: pro-life Heath Ledger Gay Gene Roe V Wade pro-choice gay rights fetus Law and Order SUV Olivia Mistelle Maxell morality
Wow, pretty interesting stuff. First off, thanks for daring to talk about abortion in some way other than the standard gay/liberal/left wing format.
As for putting conditions on abortion, remember: once you put conditions on something, someone somewhere has to decide what those conditions are, and who fits into them. In our society, we have a horrible habit of hiring some "official" to do that. Scary stuff.
I definitely agree that the religious yahoos would be killing off unborn homos. Lots of people we didn't previously think of as yahoos would do the same. Most of the world's straight population probably would if they could.
My biological mother had me young and went to get an abortion 3 times, backing out at the last minute each time. Instead she put me up for adoption. If she could somehow predict that I'd be gay, I don't think I'd be here.
You bring up a lot of interesting points. Logically speaking, I guess gay people who don't think life begins at conception would have to support the idea of someone aborting a gay fetus, because they think it isn't a life. They couldn't call it discrimination unless they think it's possible to discriminate against a non-lifeform. If you think people should have a certain right, you can't go around picking and choosing how they use that right.
I also agree with what you've said about more self-loathing being instilled into gay kids. I'm so glad I didn't buy into what people were telling me about myself, even when I was 4 years old.
1. what would you do if you knew your unborn child was going to have a certain percentage of being gay?
Nothing, since I don't care what their orientation is.
2. Would you abort?
Hell no. I'm not a psychopath.
3. Would you have the child and create a self loathing in them, and try to “fix” them?
No, and the only thing I can figure about people who do this kind of thing is that they have a fundamentally different definition of love than I do.
4. Or would you love them unconditionally, and let them be who they are?"
Of course.
A very good article, and thanks for sharing it!
Hey there, Skate!
Thanks for coming over and reading--
With the new anti-gay bill in Uganda, the new findings of there being a detectable gay gene didn't seem so much as a victory for gays any longer but more like a, "oh fuck" kind of thing.
Abortion is a touchy issue. I remember being young (6 or 7) watching Whoopi Goldberg do stand up on an HBO special and she was enacting a character that had to perform her own back door abortion with a coat hanger. It stuck with me and the idea that some women have had to resort to all kinds of dangerous methods because of no other alternatives made me aware at a young age how important a woman's right to choose really was.
Then the idea that people would abort their child for being gay was brought to my attention as an adult and I began questioning how this would effect my stance on pro-choice. I came to the conclusion as long as it's the woman's choice and not those of family members or governments then...it's her choice.
But it's scary for us gays and completely offensive. We live our entire lives hearing we are "bad" "evil" "wrong" etc..and it just adds to the big sigh, ya know.
Being the bigger person--we still have to respect the choice of the woman.
Thank you for reading--