Can People Turn Gay?

[Eggy216]

Can people decide to be something different, can accidental changes happen? Do you believe it is possible for a straight human being to become gay, literally changing sexuality?

Discuss.

Yes I think so. All my life, I was 100% sure I was straight. But around 8th grade I started to change, and am now a closeted bisexual. (I haven't told anyone except on NS where I'm anonymous). So yes, it's very possible to suddenly change your sexuality. Although I think that your sexuality is something you are born with, it may just take a while to completely realize what it actually is.

[Sovereign Spirits]

Probably.

[Beinai]

I'm not sure. Sometimes I feel like everyone is bisexual to some extent. Doesn't really explain asexuality, though. Other times I feel that homosexuality or bisexuality was always there but went unnoticed. I don't know If I am straight or bi. It would be silly to try and define myself as both so I have no limit, personally, to whom I sleep with... I'll decide when I'm there.

[Ryadn]

2) A single good reason why anyone at all would choose to be gay.

Way lower risk of STDs and no risk of pregnancy.

I'm just sayin'.

[Ryadn]

I'm not sure. Sometimes I feel like everyone is bisexual to some extent. Doesn't really explain asexuality, though. Other times I feel that homosexuality or bisexuality was always there but went unnoticed. I don't know If I am straight or bi. It would be silly to try and define myself as both so I have no limit, personally, to whom I sleep with... I'll decide when I'm there.

Well, if your inclination was to define yourself as 'both', couldn't you just drop the 'straight' part? I mean, I assume if you're having this dilemma that you're attracted to members of both your same and different gender, so... ? Maybe I'm missing something....

[Unidox]

... Do you believe it is possible for a straight human being to become gay, literally changing sexuality?

Discuss.

The Gay-Ray is a complete urban myth.
<.<
>.>

[Homosexy]

2) A single good reason why anyone at all would choose to be gay.

Way lower risk of STDs and no risk of pregnancy.

I'm just sayin'.

Yeah but most people don't think those are good enough reasons given the scrutiny and ridicule and slander, and sometimes the beatings.

[The Merchant Republics]

Yes. People can turn gay. According to most psychologists and psychiatrists, sexual orientation can change.

Usually the question is raised in the context of conscious choice. It's true that sexuality can change over time, but there's nothing to suggest that it does so consciously or voluntarily.

I agree. Sexuality is probably like other preferences formed with both psychological AND biological origins. Such that a person may be born with homosexual leaning preferences but never become one for lack of a psychological impetus. This would better explain higher rates of homosexuality in more tolerant nations and why in places like Ancient Greece homosexuality was at times ubitquitous.

[Alyakia]

Usually the question is raised in the context of conscious choice. It's true that sexuality can change over time, but there's nothing to suggest that it does so consciously or voluntarily.

I agree. Sexuality is probably like other preferences formed with both psychological AND biological origins. Such that a person may be born with homosexual leaning preferences but never become one for lack of a psychological impetus. This would better explain higher rates of homosexuality in more tolerant nations and why in places like Ancient Greece homosexuality was at times ubitquitous.

How can one tell the difference between an actual higher rate of gay people and a higher rate of gay people that are able and willing to identify openly as gay?

[Vellosia]

Sexuality is probably like other preferences formed with both psychological AND biological origins. Such that a person may be born with homosexual leaning preferences but never become one for lack of a psychological impetus. This would better explain higher rates of homosexuality in more tolerant nations and why in places like Ancient Greece homosexuality was at times ubitquitous.

I agree with that.

[Xirius]

You "trained" yourself to find someone sexually arousing who previously wasn't?

Yes.

So you basically developed a fetish?

[Xirius]

If I am not mistaken (correct me if I am) sexual orientation is a result of brain chemistry and how it influences brain development. Theoretically the way to change it would be to modify the brain chemistry, but then there is still habit and fetishes. Influencing the brain can change sexual orientation. I have read a news article about some guy who got a brain tumor and developed an attraction to children. As soon as the tumor was removed, the attraction was gone. And if debate starts here as to wheter pedos should be "fixed" with brain surgery or implants, keep in mind that this field is not yet deeply enough researched.

I am bi but more attracted to women than to men. And I am a bit zoo, too. None of this was a conscious choice, it is simply what I am.

[Fallos Miriai]

Way lower risk of STDs and no risk of pregnancy.

I'm just sayin'.

Yeah but most people don't think those are good enough reasons given the scrutiny and ridicule and slander, and sometimes the beatings.

Well, if more people were more accepting and open, we wouldn't have to WORRY about those.

[Fallos Miriai]

I'm not sure. Sometimes I feel like everyone is bisexual to some extent. Doesn't really explain asexuality, though. Other times I feel that homosexuality or bisexuality was always there but went unnoticed. I don't know If I am straight or bi. It would be silly to try and define myself as both so I have no limit, personally, to whom I sleep with... I'll decide when I'm there.

Sounds like a philosophy a former friend of mine used to have. "Everyone has bisexual tendencies". Another person I know claims to have a "party personality" where he says he's straight, but is willing to sleep with men for fun and have no emotional attachment. (Sometimes I call it DENIAL)

Everyone has a certain sexuality that fits most of the time. But since gender isn't always 100% defined for some people, then it'd make sense for there to be exceptions to your sexuality. (Meaning a random fling not fitting your normal preference)

You like what you like.

[Sarzonia]

No.

The better question is why would someone choose to "turn" gay?

[Zhelezo]

I don't think anyone can choose to turn full gay.
I think every human has the ability to discover their inner pansexuality.
Humans that discover their inner pansexuality can choose to only have relations with members of their own gender. However, it's impossible to change who you were born to be attracted to. I'm attracted to women, but I don't actively seek relations with them because I find it all to be a waste of time.

Does not seeking relations with women make me asexual? Or a straight person that's not seeking relations?

[Ifreann]

You "trained" yourself to find someone sexually arousing who previously wasn't?

Yes.

Sounds more like you were attracted to them from the beginning.

[Rhodmhire]

I think that you mostly realize sexual things about yourself (orientation, fetishisms, et cetera) as opposed to discovering them and choosing to based off of influence. There is a difference between being uncertain about some sexual thing and then realizing that you are interested in something else and being introduced to something else and "turning" to it. One is a manifestation, a realization, and the other is a decision.

You realize, you don't decide, for the most part.

[The Parkus Empire]

You "trained" yourself to find someone sexually arousing who previously wasn't?

Yes.

That makes no sense. That's like saying you can train yourself to be aroused every time you see a carrot or a potato. You could brainwash yourself, I suppose--by whipping out a potato every time you're about to look at porn or meet someone you find attractive--is that what you're talking about?

[Ifreann]

Yes.

That makes no sense. That's like saying you can train yourself to be aroused every time you see a carrot or a potato. You could brainwash yourself, I suppose--by whipping out a potato every time you're about to look at porn or meet someone you find attractive--is that what you're talking about?

Somewhere, a dog just started drooling.

[Samuraikoku]

You "trained" yourself to find someone sexually arousing who previously wasn't?

Yes.

And just when I thought nothing could surprise me anymore.

[Rhodmhire]

Yes.

And just when I thought nothing could surprise me anymore.

Maybe he did it for someone he loves.

"Love makes you do the craziest things."

Or some cheesy shit like that.

[Samuraikoku]

And just when I thought nothing could surprise me anymore.

Maybe he did it for someone he loves.

"Love makes you do the craziest things."

Or some cheesy shit like that.

As I remember, Nyoronet is a woman. I'm not saying what she says isn't true, I'm just surprised because I've never heard of such thing. But I have no reason to disbelieve her.

[Threlizdun]

Sexuality is seldom a black and white issue. While 100% homosexual individuals, 100% heterosexual, or 100% asexual individuals do exist, they are very rare. To do so you would have to state that you do not find a member of whatever sex you are not sexually attracted to to be in no possible way attractive. Doing so would mean that as a 100% heterosexual male, even if the other male is a famous actor or male model, or some other individual that almost everyone considers to be handsome or attractive, even if not in a sexual way, but a visually appealing way, you would fervantly deny that they were even slightly attractive. This is something almost no people do, as certain visual aesthetics are appealing to most everyone. To this discription, essentially everyone has some bisexual, polysexual, or pansexual characteristics, even if this characteristics are nill.

With this being said, the expression of these characteristics may be encouraged, supressed, or viewed neutrally in acordance to society. These characteristics may also be intensified or diminished as a result of instances throughout ones life. For example, a man who had suppressed bisexual tendencies that did not even realize it may find that after the loss of their wife, looking at other women the same way they looked at their wife brings great pain to them, thus their brain supresses their heterosexual characteristics and supports their homosexual characteristics, resulting in an instance that I have actually heard of numerous times in which reportidly heterosexual men became homosexual after the loss of their wives. This may describe the switch that you claim. However, this is not really a switch, simply a choice to deny or accept aspects of yourself often in accordance to the convience of the act or of your mental outlook towards it.

A more common occurance is when someone marries someone else do to the fact that they feel that perhaps that if they stay with this person they'll learn to love them that way. Love certainly does exist, but often they love each other more like family or friends, finding that marriage would essentially be spending more time with someone they have come to love spending time with. They may realize after years of marriage that their feelings do not intensify, and perhaps that they may even become depressed due to the denial of their true selves. This often occurs as a result of people who have been instructed with religious values that view these acts as abominable, causing them to believe that surely even though they are different from others, they typically believe it is a choice so they think they can eventually overcome it.

All of these instances may also be used in the opposite way though, as in accordance to the "straight camps". These places essentially function in a way that they make people feel like human garbage, forcing the individual to try to supress their nature in views or else living with what they feel to be horrible shame. Even if a rare instance shows these camps "working", they are in reality, simply imprisoning part of yourself. Like any other instance of denial of who you really are, this only brings harm to the individual involved, with these feelings of shame often adding to the level of suicides amongst LGBTQP individuals. So in other words, you can change your display of sexual identity, and even alter the thought pattern of it, but you cannot actually change your orientation.

The only viable sollution is to accept everyone as who they are and accept yourself as who you are. I myself am pansexual, being attracted to members of any gender, though I do feel more attraction to females than other genders. I am perfectly happy being what I am, and would never change it for the world.

[Geniasis]

Could you use some paragraphs. Please? Maybe?