"Choice" is wonderful when the subject is abortion rights. However when crazed religious extremists natter on about sexual orientation being a "choice," it gets annoying. It is used as a pretext for bigotry, and it dismisses the life experiences of queer people.

Pagan Sphinx has pointed out a fabulous protest her daughter was involved in against a militant fundamentalist who chose Smith College as a venue for publicizing the book, The Born Gay Hoax. Catch the Feministing post on the protest.

I've never quoted comments from anyone else's blog before, but one from ann bran on this posting is brilliant.

You know what’s ridiculous? Pretending that it actually matters whether sexuality (excuse me, ‘sexual deviance’) is innate, a choice, or some more fluid mixture of a sundry of things. Last I checked, it isn’t hurting anybody, and I’m gonna do as I damn well please, thank you. Though I love that I’m to blame for the end of civilization, God, and probably kittens too. (And this wouldn’t be complete w/o a reference to DTWOF.) You’ve got a lot of nerve, blaming your crack-smoking children on me.

If people weren't so nutty, they would realize that homosexuality and bisexuality would be perfectly valid choices, if this were an area where people actually get to make those decisions. Too much of queer discourse on sexual orientation is just too damned defensive. So many people discuss being queer as something they have to excuse or apologize for. Even many of our "leaders" are far too defensive about who and what they are.

We need to gain the subtlety of thought and expression necessary to reject the agenda and arrogance of claims that sexual orientation is a choice or that gender identity is a choice, while also rejecting the notion that there would be anything wrong with choosing to be transgender, bisexual, lesbian, or gay.

We're here! Were queer! We're faaaaabulous! Get used to it!

(I know it's retro, but it's still as valid today.)