Extraits

Anecdotal evidence supports the stereotype. Here’s one such anecdote, told by World War II veteran and lesbian activist Johnnie Phelps:

One day I got called in to my commanding general’s office—and it happened to be Eisenhower at the time—and he said, “It’s come to my attention that there may be some lesbians in the WAC battalion. I’m giving you an order to ferret those lesbians out, we’re going to get rid of them.” And I looked at him and I looked at his secretary standing next to me, and I said “Well, sir, if the General pleases, sir, I’ll be happy to do this investigation for you, but you have to know that the first name on the list will be mine.” And he was kind of taken aback, and then this woman standing next to me said “Sir, if the General pleases, you must be aware that Sgt. Phelps’ name may be second, but mine will be first.” And then I looked at him and I said “Sir, you’re right, there are lesbians in the WAC battalion. And if the General is prepared to replace all the file clerks, all the section commanders, all the drivers, every woman in the WAC detachment”—there were about nine-hundred and eighty-something of us—“then I’ll be happy to make that list.” And he said “Forget the order!”

For some reason, no poll that I’m aware of has asked straight Americans what made them heterosexual.

Is it a choice?

About one-third of all Americans believe that being homosexual is a “lifestyle choice,” according to a Los Angeles Times poll.30 This is about the same as the fraction of Americans who think gay people are “born that way.”

For some reason, no poll that I’m aware of has asked straight Americans what made them heterosexual. If they were asked, I doubt that more than a handful would assert that they chose to be straight. More likely, they would say something like, “It’s just human nature.” In other words, they would claim that they were born straight. Yet to believe that one is born straight, but that gay people chose to be gay, is to conceptualize homosexuality as some kind of willful deviation from a person’s own true nature. Indeed, the belief that being gay is a choice is connected with all kinds of negative beliefs about gay people and how they should be treated