Personally, I think of homosexuality as being the equivalent of higher economics... which is to say, I don't understand it.
I also don't agree with it... on a biological level, physiological level, and evolutionary level. Please notice that I left out any mention of religion.
We could change this question to this:
"Are people born hetrosexual or choice?"
The answer I guess for most people is that we are born this way. With this answer does it answer the original question?
I don't recall at age 0-5 having sexual feelings at all. So no I don't believe I was born Heterosexual either.
I think the argument comes down to: Are we born with inclinations that we can choose to follow or are we forced to follow the genes Nature or God gave to us.
I distrust the whole sentiment that one cannot control their feelings. Sexual desires can be tempered and tamed and therefore are subject to the environment and how we react to stimuli. It has allot more to do with how we react to the stimuli that comes before us and the choices we make throughout our life. I believe certain life choices as well as upbringing have a greater influence on our sexual orientation then do Genes.
dbackers I will have to Google a bit more but I remember a minister who was gay then reformed being on the local Christian channel. He had a web site set up to help "reform" others that are confused like he was. I never looked it up at the time but I think he was from the states Texas comes to mind. Might be interesting to see what he has on this topic. Sorry just came to mind reading your last post.
Let me bust out my Psychology text book here (AP course:7th edition modules; David G. Myers). There are such things as gender roles(set of expected behaviors for males and for females), gender typing(the acquisition of a traditional masculine or feminine role), gender identity(one's sense of being male or female), social learning theory(that we learn social behavior by observing and imitating and by being rewarded or punished), and gender schema theory (that children learn from their cultures a concept of what it means to be male and female and that they adjust their behavior accordingly). All of these have to do somewhat with gay people/ how people act. Basically it boils down to.... both. So it could be that a male at birth has more estrogen or a female has more testosterone. However, there's also no "gay" gene either. So it's basically still an opinion based question.
It's probably something that's never going to be solved.
How much does gender identity have to do with sexuality though? A person can identify strongly as male and at the same time be gay. That's definitely my situation. I have great respect for women but I am comfortable within my skin, comfortable with my gender and happy being male. I'm also gay. The two aren't mutually exclusive as far as I can see...