NORMAL LIFE: Why Try To Eliminate Me?

Remember Hitler's idealism of creating a superior Aryan race, with the deep-seated belief that the original speakers of the Indo-European languages gracing Nordic looks constituted a distinctive race? Sixty years on, society still harbours 'ideals' like this.

The Human Genome project has raised issues such as 'designer babies' and how 'afflictions' such as deafness and homosexuality could be eliminated by extraction of the genes found to cause such afflictions from sperm prior to implantation into the egg. Sounds like the stuff of science fiction, but why is society obsessed with creating the perfect human designed to live longer and healthier in a world with an already overflowing population?

There are scientists working on cures for Cancer and Heart Diseases and there are even teams determined to find the 'cause' of homosexuality. Ask any gay man, and there's very little interest in knowing the how's or why's of why we are the way we are; put simply, if we weren't intended to be here, we wouldn't exist in the first place let alone the 1500 animals among which homosexuality has been observed (see here).

If a gene is found that causes homosexuality, will the specialists work to prevent it and on what rationale? Who has the right to remove this gene from the 'code'. Newly elected Pope Benedict XVI once described homosexuality as a "tendency" towards an "intrinsic moral evil". What the Pope doesn't know is that homosexuality isn't something you choose in a bid to differentiate yourself - it's not a marketing tactic, for god's sake!

We must ask ourselves: will the elimination of sub-cultures (e.g. deaf societies, gay societies etc.) make the world a better place? Given that homosexuals contribute enormously to the arts and modern politics, wouldn't we as a race be sabotaging future cultural experiences if society was suddenly devoid of such contributions? And if that was to be society's approach, wouldn't we in effect be condoning homophobia?

A team at the University of Illinois, which has screened the entire human genome, say there is no one 'gay' gene and claim that environmental factors are also likely to be involved. Meanwhile, a Canadian study suggests that a 'man's sexual orientation may be determined by conditions in the womb' (see here) or may be coincidental if he happens to be the younger of many brothers (see here). Whether the cause is genetic, environmental, biological or social, who really cares?

Alan Wardle from the gay rights charity Stonewall agreed that research in the area is interesting and contributes further to the debate, but stresses that "regardless of whether sexual orientation is determined by nature or nurture or both, the most important thing is that lesbians and gay men are treated equally and are allowed to live their life without discrimination."

After all, we are humans too and I'll say it once again: Being Gay Is Not A Choice!