It does seem to me, daylia, that your gay and Lesbian acquaintances are a collection of pretty dysfunctional people

I agree. But they certainly aren't the only dysfunctional people I've known!

Funny, Don, I was just sitting here thinking about something the 20yr old gay friend I mentioned before told me a couple weeks ago.

He said that while he'd been lured into a gay lifestyle at age 13 (by older males who "pimped" him and employed him as a drug runner on the streets of Toronto for a few years), he'd also had several short relationships with females, including one which lasted several months and resulted in an aborted pregnancy.

Since then, he says, he's chosen to be exclusively gay, simply because he likes sex with men better than sex with women. He says it's less work. (He's probably right)   

The person "John" whom LH speaks about in his post above appears to have chosen a gay lifestyle as well.

Maybe sexual orientation is a more of a choice for some than it is for others. It was certainly a choice - and a very easy one - for me.

In any case, adult human beings do (in most cases) freely and consciously choose to engage or not to engage in any type of physical/sexual behavior or lifestyle, quite independently of innate biological "urges. Exceptions to this would be incidences of sexual abuse or rape.   

Even at age 13, my friend says his behaviors were a "free choice". He quit school and chose to leave his parent's home because there was so much money to be made on the street in the sex-and-drug industry. And though his story is certainly not "representative" of all gays I don't think it's uncommon, and I do think it's worth some consideration.

daylia