Blog Layout

Is a Person Born Gay?

Phil Mitchell • Sep 24, 2023

The Central Assumption of the Gay Rights Movement is Wrong

The central doctrine of the gay rights assumes homosexuality is genetic. “I am gay because I was born that way. It’s like being black. It’s built into your DNA and there is nothing you can do about it. To criticize homosexuality is the same as racism.” Without this doctrinal assumption the whole edifice of gay rights collapses.

But it’s simply wrong. Let me give you four reasons why the gay rights movement is built on false doctrine.

First, the scientific proof is not there. Forty years ago I knew there would be a ferocious attempt to prove homosexuality was genetic and I felt that in the end some sort of junk science would be put forth as evidence for it. There was a ferocious effort. But it ended in failure. According to Nathanael Blake in World, “Though it was not widely publicized, the search for a “gay gene” ended in failure a few years ago…the development of our sexual desires is complex and often fluid, with environmental and social factors playing crucial roles.” So much for scientific proof. It has never been produced.

But the second reason is even more powerful: people change their sexual orientation. A black person cannot decide to be white. A man cannot simply decide to be a woman. A short man cannot decide to become a tall man. An old man cannot decide to become a young man. There are certain biological realities that cannot be changed. Sexual orientation is not one of them. Go on YouTube and do a search for people who claim they were once gay but are now straight. There are hundreds of testimonies claiming to change sexual orientation. Read The Secret Thoughts of an Unlikely Convert by Rosaria Butterfield, a lesbian professor of Women’s Studies who is now a pastor’s wife with several children. Not only did she change, she became the opposite of what she was. Hers is a wonderful testimony to the grace of God. I personally met a church elder with a large family who had lived a gay lifestyle for many years before converting and transitioning. When I was a professor at the University of Colorado I had a boss who came out to me—he said he was gay and felt I was one person who would not condemn him. I did not. But I spent most of one semester trying to persuade him not to take his own life, which, thank God, he did not. But he once told me that after he was dead he wanted his tombstone to read, “Here lies the father of….” And then he named his two children. As I sat there I thought, how can his condition be genetic? He claims to be gay but at one time he fathered children and claims this as his greatest accomplishment. Dennis Prager cites a UCLA study that found that two thirds of the gay men they surveyed had had sexual relations with women. Please explain the genetics to me.

It is clear that homosexuality is a chosen or learned behavior that people can choose to enter or leave at their discretion.

Third, the number of people who claim to be gay skyrockets under certain social conditions. Again, Nathanael Blake points out, “the sudden exponential increase in self-proclaimed rainbow identities shows that the mantra of “born this way” is a lie. It is now obvious that LGBTQ identities are being spread by social contagion, which means they are not all innate, immutable, and essential aspects of a person’s authentic self.”

As Dennis Prager argues, “By and large, it is society, not the individual, that chooses whether homosexuality will be widely practiced. A society's values, much more than individual tendencies, determine the extent of homosexuality in that society. “

And Jarryd Bartle in the British publication Unherd, writes a very helpful article simply entitled, Being Gay is not Biological. He gives a history of the modern development of gay ideology.

Ryan Burge uses survey literature that show nothing predicts homosexuality more than religious affiliation. Atheists and agnostics are far more likely to be practicing homosexuals than people who are religious. Religion is not genetic. It is a choice.

No, homosexuality is learned behavior and the fundamental underpinning of the gay rights movement is dead.

Fourth, most importantly, homosexual behavior is condemned by the Bible. God’s Word says homosexuality is a sin, not a genetic condition. If a man has a strong desire to cheat on his wife the Bible says don’t do it no matter how strong the desire. I have heard men say that monogamy is just not natural and it is in their biological nature to cheat on your wife. The Bible does not cut you slack for strong sinful desires. It simply says not to give in to them. There are a number of men who have a very powerful same sex attraction but as Christians they do not give in to it.

Leviticus 18:22 calls homosexual behavior an abomination; and Paul condemns it very specifically in Romans 1:26,27.

Dennis Prager concludes, the gay rights movement “Denies life, it denies God’s expressed desire that men and women cohabit, and it denies the root structure that Judaism[and Christianity] wishes for all mankind, the family.”

The Gospel is open to everyone, including those trapped in the gay lifestyle. We invite all men and women, including gay men and women to come to Christ and find forgiveness and healing.

Thanks for listening.

More: See my video, The Religious Origins of the Rights Movements”; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9ggE_qI85WA

“Born this way is a lie.”

https://wng.org/opinions/the-lies-of-born-this-way-1691493975

There is no “gay gene.” There is no scientific basis for “born this way.”

https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-019-02585-6

Don’t miss Dennis Prager’s brilliant essay; “Why Judaism Rejected Homosexuality”:

https://www.catholiceducation.org/en/marriage-and-family/sexuality/judaism-s-sexual-revolution-why-judaism-rejected-homosexuality.html

Being gay is not biological:

https://unherd.com/2023/05/the-aesthetics-of-being-gay/?tl_inbound=1&tl_groups[0]=18743&tl_period_type=3&mc_cid=4a837fe16f&mc_eid=5b400e1632

Ryan Burge on the relationship between religion and sexual orientation: https://www.graphsaboutreligion.com/p/gender-sexual-orientation-and-religion?utm_campaign=email-post&r=ljoms&utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email

A fascinating essay on homosexuality as learned behavior from a far-left magazine: https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2007/08/gay-choice-science-sexual-identity/