MovieChat Forums > Far from Heaven (2003) Discussion > Some people turn gay.

Some people turn gay.

posted 8 years ago by cooler56
2 replies | jump to latest

Sometimes people do change their sexuality later in life. For various reasons. It's not like they just "discovered," that they were gay, but rather, over time, their preferences shifted. Human sexuality is a very complex thing, and it is very harmful to believe that people are either born gay, straight, or something else. In fact, there is no biological definition of "gay" or "straight." It is all about behaviour.

Now I am not saying that you can "force" someone to be straight overnight, or that it is easy as just thinking about something else. But the whole gay rights movement was founded on the idea that gay people "can't help it..." What if some people felt as if they did find the appeal in being gay, later in life? That could have been the case for Frank. I don't think that makes the gay movement somehow invalidated. Everyone has the right to their own preferences. It's not like being a "straight man" somehow makes you categorically attracted to every "woman" on the planet.

And when you mix transgender people and other things into the equation, sexuality becomes much more complicated... The point being, is that people's sexual preferences do change over time, and it is not somehow wrong or necessarily genetically hardwired.

[–] sly_3 8 years ago

The cloudy nature of internal self discovery of one's sexuality and the external constraints of a stratified, artificial (and hypocritical) society is what Haynes is trying to reveal here. Do not be fooled, though, by overthinking it - homosexuals ( and, by proxy, the offshoot of transsexuality) are born that way. Period.

[–] cooler56 8 years ago

There is scientific evidence to suggest the contrary, that sexuality is molded and remolded throughout one's lifetime. though it is not well understood. But I don't think that people ever "choose" to be gay or straight.

Also, sexuality and gender identity are not biological quanta. That has never been proven. It is rather made up of various components that are not well-understood. Things like gender and sexuality are social constructs projected onto human behavior and biology. To call the construct "man" the construct "gay" because they like a "woman" with a penis, or a "man" with vagina is problematic, because these are all merely words.

Also, younger generations are becoming more queer and gender fluid. More curious about sexuality. I believe the idea that everyone is born a certain "way" gay or straight, is outdated, because the idea of "gay" and "straight" is obsolete.