{"id":16269,"date":"2015-03-05T12:08:07","date_gmt":"2015-03-05T19:08:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/?p=16269"},"modified":"2015-03-05T12:08:07","modified_gmt":"2015-03-05T19:08:07","slug":"thursday-bag-o-sedition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pwoodford.net\/blog\/?p=16269","title":{"rendered":"Thursday Bag o’ Sedition"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"i_heart_sedition_tote_bag\"I think of myself as\u00a0progressive, at least when it comes to politics and public policy. Socially, I’m\u00a0an embarrassment to the cause.<\/p>\n

Social progressives reject\u00a0certain thoughts\u00a0as seditious.\u00a0One such thought is that some people “choose” to be gay.<\/p>\n

Based on all I know and have observed, sexual orientation is\u00a0not<\/em>\u00a0a choice. We are\u00a0what we are, gay or straight;\u00a0most of us know what we are by the time we’re teenagers and tend to stay that way the rest of our lives. Some gay people live outwardly heterosexual lives because of social pressure, and I suppose that’s a choice, though a\u00a0forced\u00a0one. A few people seem to be genuinely bisexual and therefore don’t have to choose either way; a few\u00a0more may experiment, at different times of their lives, with the other side, and I guess that’s a choice too.<\/p>\n

Experimentation or rebellion aside, though, can people\u00a0consciously choose to\u00a0change their basic sexual orientation? Maybe, though it’s an unpopular thought on the left. I’m with the left when it comes to rejecting the notion that gay people can be “converted” to heterosexuality; there’s no evidence conversion has ever worked, and plenty of evidence it has wrecked lives. But I do believe that some people consciously choose to\u00a0change their sexual orientation. Probably not many, but some. We know a woman who’s been a lesbian all her adult life; she’s also\u00a0one of the first women\u00a0to legally marry another woman in our state. Now, though, she’s divorcing her wife in order to marry a\u00a0man she describes as her soulmate.<\/p>\n

I could ask a million questions about her choices, but it’s none of my business. Suppose some people do\u00a0choose to change their sexuality \u2014\u00a0so what? Let people be what they choose to be. Let people pursue their happiness. In that, at least, I guess I can claim to be socially progressive.<\/p>\n

——————–<\/p>\n

Wonkette and other progressive blogs love to poke fun at the right and its fixation with the threat of transgender toilets<\/a>.\u00a0Here’s a sample from the linked post:<\/p>\n

If you are not familiar with the wingnuts\u2019 argument against trans people in the bathrooms, or you can\u2019t put it together in your mind using your Logic Skills, it goes like this: If transgender people are able to use their preferred bathrooms, then creepy straight men will fake being transgender \u2014 LIKE THEY ALWAYS ARE DOING \u2014 and hang out in the ladies\u2019 room and leer and perv around. We are waiting for documentation that this is an ongoing problem in Obama\u2019s America, but we are sure it is, the Christian Right never just cold fuckin\u2019 lies about stuff, it\u2019s against the Bible.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

I don’t think transgender people go into restrooms in order to perv. I\u00a0think they have to go potty. But there are pervs, plenty of them, and it’s not a stretch to imagine one\u00a0cross-dressing in order to use the women’s restroom. I mean, damn, just look at the sort of things pervs get up to without<\/em> cross-dressing:<\/p>\n