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Is sexual orientation a choice?


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There's a web poll on KTVU.com in the SF Bay Area that asks the question: Do you think sexual orientation is a choice, or hardwired genetically? When the poll first opened the response was about 34% choice, 66% hardwired genetically. Now some churches, most outside of the Bay Area, are attempting to hijack the results by having their members select the answer "choice". The results as I write this email are 41% choice 59% hardwired genetically.That upsets me, so I'd like to ask you to click on the link below and answer the question whichever way you think is right. I'm not telling you how to vote, just asking you to vote. You can only vote once.

Here's the link: http://www.ktvu.com/surveypopup/news/14346...ail.html?p=news.

Thank you!

Colin :hiya:

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There's a web poll on KTVU.com in the SF Bay Area that asks the question: Do you think sexual orientation is a choice, or hardwired genetically? When the poll first opened the response was about 34% choice, 66% hardwired genetically. Now some churches, most outside of the Bay Area, are attempting to hijack the results by having their members select the answer "choice". The results as I write this email are 41% choice 59% hardwired genetically.That upsets me, so I'd like to ask you to click on the link below and answer the question whichever way you think is right. I'm not telling you how to vote, just asking you to vote. You can only vote once.

Here's the link: http://www.ktvu.com/surveypopup/news/14346...ail.html?p=news.

Thank you!

Colin :hiya:

I do sympathize with your concern Colin, but I would like to add my own perspective on these polls.

The trouble with these polls is that they are fraught with misinterpretation and misuse.

I might just as well set up a poll to ask if you believe the KTVU poll has been put forward because people have chosen to be stupid or is it in their breeding?

Such polls do not serve honest inquiry. They remind me of the lawyer's question:

"Have you stopped beating you wife? Answer, yes or no, please."

It doesn't matter which way answer, you have admitted to beating your wife.

The basic nature of the question is at fault.

If the poll's question (which does not define its terms) wasn't bad enough, the answers can be misconstrued in such ways that it should seriously invalidate any published results.

What we really need to do is attack the idea that such polls can provide useful results, or that they serve any useful purpose other than as a parlour game for the fundamentally limited intelligence of their originators. (AD forum polls excepted of course.) :sneaky:

A first step here, would be to deliberately vote to skew the results away from the, obviously sought for, result. If that does not appeal for reasons of ethics, then consider attacking the root nature of such polls.

The threat is not in the question per se, but in the idea that such polls can provide meaningful answers; especially when those answers are utilised to act on allowing individuals the freedom to be whomever they are, or to control their perception of themselves.

It is one thing to make a logical and valid argument for discussion on a subject.

It is another thing entirely to misuse the majority of the democratic vote (in such an unverified poll) as if it were scientific evidence.

We must make up our minds as to whether we want to live by what people believe (or think they believe), or the way things actually are, in reality.

(I don't say the latter is easy.)

PS I voted.

Perhaps I should take a poll on which way people think I voted? Would it matter?

I think not. :hiya:

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Well, I know it's not a choice.

In Kindergarten, I kissed my first boy. Like, as many times as I like...

The same boy.

They said "Oooh it's so cute...."

Those were the days...

Now parents would most likely freaked out if something like that happens.

And it's only back in the second half of the 80's

(hint) I'm from an Asian country :hiya:

BTW I think we should vote "No it's wired genetically" because, if nothing else, it would deprive the fundies of a potential ammo for their hate sermons...

Rad

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Sure sexual orientation is a choice. Just like a person's race and gender are a choice, people are responsible for the sins of their fathers for seven generations, and wearing clothing made of two types of cloth and eating shellfish is an abomination in the eyes of the lard.

signed,

Jerry Falwell

Last Baptist Church

Hell, New Jersey

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  • 2 weeks later...

It should be pretty clear that the originators of the poll aren't seeking to confirm whether sexual orientation is an inherent trait or not, but whether people believe that it's an inherent trait or not.

But, and here is the bottom line, I think it is being used as a means of bringing a little controversy and attention to their site more than as a means of honest inquiry, which strikes me as a little cold-blooded.

cheers!

aj

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