I believe it is not a choice and I have my beliefs as to why and those beliefs came from experience.

Growing up in my household was tough at time because ever since my brother was around 3-4 years old he would constantly get caught taking my sisters and/or mothers clothing and wearing them. Whenever this happened he would get yelled at by my parents.

Now some may think that is mean, but it is understandable for a parent to freak out when their son thinks he is their daughter. This continued all throughout his life until he was about 25 years old. That is when he decided to move away and told us it was because he did not feel comfortable living a lie.

We asked what he meant and he told us it was because all his life he has felt like a woman trapped in a mans body. He was upset when he would get yelled at for trying to be who he felt he was supposed to be. Of course we stayed in contact as I love my family regardless of the choices they make or who they want to be.

After years of being away he recently moved back here. He had his named legally changed, took medication to develop breasts and now does modeling.

I doubt he could do all of this because he made a choice to become transgender. He was able to do all of this because that is who he really was. That is what he always felt, and now that he took that leap and decided to live his life the way he felt he was meant to he is now happier than I have ever seen and also much more confident.

Making a choice to just start being gay as opposed to being born that way does not yield these kinds of results. I don't care what anyone says.

I am more grown up than those people, its not an act.

Is it discrimination to point out the lunacy of irrational fear and hatred? Hating and shunning someone for their sexual orientation is discriminatory, pointing out that it is is not. By your logic, I can't tell people who hate all black people (KKK for instance) that their hate is irrational and unfair since its discrimination.

If I were to bash someones basis for the hatred and fear, say having read the bible and believeing in god, that would be discrimination. Clearly, that is not what I'm doing. Hate on gay people all you want, but I reserve the right to think myself the more grown up on the subject at hand. Am I a better person? Impossible to say, I harbour no such illusions. I fear and hate certain things as well but there's a reason behind it all. There is no reason to hate and/or fear gay people.

No, you are not. You just think you are because the socitey or community you live in makes people think everyone who isnt in love with gays is homophobe and evil. As much as you find hard to believe, there are people who arent comftorbale with people who behave like homosexuals, and they dont have to be looked down upon by people like you.

There are also people who aren't comfortable around blacks. They shouldn't be looked down upon either I suppose, no?

No one is supposed to be looked down upon for their views as long as they dont try to force thier views on others. Also, note, there is a difference between ''behaving like'' reasons to be uncomfrotable around someone, and be uncomfrotable around someone because of thier race.   

pizzahut451: There's a difference between "being in love with gays" and generally simply accepting them for what they are (equals). Polarizing the points does nothing to improve your point. I have never pointed out that people who hate on gays are evil either, that's simply a strawman, a damn visible one at that.

Also, I'll have you know that the society I live in does not agree with me most of the time, both in this issue and others. When you get older, perhaps you'll learn to see nuances in life and hopefully accept people for who they are. At this rate, you can't complain if someone does not accept you for some arbitrary reason. 18 year olds know little to nothing about maturity in my experience and your arguments and posts in this thread reflect that.

People who are uncomfortable with gays do try to force their views on others through discrimination, persecution and making laws to facilitate that.

Also you just think people who are uncomfortable around someone because of their race are bad because the socitey or community you live in makes people think everyone who isnt in love with non-whites is evil.

That's pretty cool, that you're okay with him (or her) being who he really wants to be, I'm thinking a lot of people would completely freak out... How'd your parents react?