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London: Gay couple threatened with death in violent late night homophobic assault
141
Government considers watered down same-sex marriage bill to minimise Tory rebellion
133
Tory MP Gerald Howarth: 'There are plenty in the aggressive homosexual community who want more than just same-sex marriage'
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France: Far right activist commits suicide in Notre Dame following legalisation of equal marriage
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UK: Card Factory accused of homophobia for selling offensive 'fag' birthday card
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Philip Hammond: 'No great demand for gay marriage and it's upsetting vast numbers of people'
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Norman Tebbit: David Cameron has 'f**** things up' with his equal marriage bill
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Tory MP Sir Gerald Howarth defends 'aggressive homosexual community' equal marriage slur
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US church blames Woolwich suspected terror killing on UK acceptance of gay people
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David Cameron: Gay teenagers will stand that bit taller following equal marriage vote
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Robert in S. Kensington 730
GulliverUK 360
D.McCabe 339
Midnighter 337
Jock S. Trap 324
Mark Y 319
Iris 307
Sasha 289
That There Other David 289
Rehan 274
There is no hope.
Is heterosexuality a choice?
300000 people are wrong.
So are Yahoo.
Really pathetic way to conduct a poll. A limited number of people offered two crappy options with no real explanation as to what they represent.
actually the yahoo poll was linked to new scientific research; available to readers before voting; follow: http://news.yahoo.com/gene-regulation-may-explain-homosexuality-flourishes-191300586.html
How many of those 300,000 read the report? My guess is not many.
of course they should list and by it being a “choice” we mean all you straight boys, would have no qualms about giving up women forever and taking it from behind from a big hairy guy for the rest of your life if he just said a few nice words to you. your like of vagina is just slightly more than your love of passive anal sex, kind of like today you slightly prefer vanilla icecream but tomorrow chocolate would be fine…doesnt really matter, one is as good as the other, whatever you felt like that day. you could watch gay porn all day and enjoy it just as much as any other porn….you just by circumstance at the moment temporarily choose to date a woman, if you break up, you will be looking for a man or a woman, whichever comes along first. not really particular about which. THAT kind of CHOICE? Or is it more you are programmed to like girls and would be upset if the government and the bible thumpers said NOPE girls are off limits Suffer BITCH
I agree. The option for “It may not be genetic, but environmental factors are still beyond the scope of an individual’s control and therefore NOT a choice” is notably lacking. It also ignores the deterministic nature of the universe to imply we ever really have choice in anything. Loaded question.
‘… Dan Avery of Queerty, who alerted PinkNews to the poll told PinkNews.co.uk: “The real question is, why does it matter if its genetic or not? It doesn’t affect whether gays and lesbians should have full equality.”…’
Well it does matter, choices don’t have to be accommodated in terms of human rights and equality
They do when this ‘poll’ is taking place during a time of great political debate both here in UK and also in the US, home of Yahoo.
There is no doubt this ‘poll’ was instigated in order to sway popular political opinion.
Great political debate wouldn’t take place if it was about the choice (again sexual preference unlike sexuality doesn’t have to be supported in law in terms of human rights and equality)
The poll is an insult to intellegence. And yes, it matters very much whether it is a decision. Truth matters. It matters to every child that is told they are making the wrong decision. It matters to every person of faith who are told they are entertaining wicked thoughts. The choice/decision theory justifies every brutal act and attitude against GLBT people.
Just goes to show, Yahoo has 300,000 Sun readers! :p
Their ‘news’ content is incredibly poor. They rely upon ‘sensational’ headlines to draw in viewers and thus increase their advert views, a la AOL.
It’s sad that an organization that is struggling to be considered a go-to news resource is not using their platform to inform with facts, but rather using their tools to perpetuate the myth that homosexuality is up for debate.
I’m appalled by the question and I’m appalled by the results.
Not surprised. Just yesterday read a story there on a brave beautiful gay man who saved people in Oregon shooting and half of comments were mocking that man’s sexuality, some even suggested he should go to hell (for saving people!). It’s like reading Daily Mail.
Ill- informed ignorant bigots number in their millions world wide – what has this so called poll got to do with any truth –
Millions of stupid people believe in a god – that doesn’t make it true – Yahoo be prepared to loose thousands of subscribers!
In a world where the majority of people believe that the world was created by a vengeful and supposedly all-powerful invisbible man, nothing would surprise me.
280,000 wrong people and 261,000 people who actually know it is something to do with biology.
I think that’s quite good, for a US Yahoo poll. I’m fairly sure it will have been circulating widely amongst the religious right. If you see other polls and read commentary in the US, you’d know that a lot of people think it does have some genetic / biological component.
Who cares? Maybe we’re all bisexual, but some of us are programmed to be straight.
I’m not really all that surprised. A huge number of Americans still believe that the universe was created in six days 6,000 – 10,000 years ago, and that the stories of Adam, Eve and the serpent in the Garden of Eden and of Noah’s Ark are history.
I’m not suprised. Yahoo comments generally attract the lowest of the low.
How many of would use different accounts to vote more than once?. It’s quite clear from polls in the Mail and Telegraph that an orchestrated response is engineered.
How many of the redneck fraternity would get relatives to use their accounts for this poll?
“of respondents” I meant to say.
So 53% must have made a choice to be closeted heterosexuals, why else would they think it is a choice, unless they have chosen to be straight.
I know many “straight” guys who have some sort of same-sex attraction, so maybe these 53% are those bi-sexuals who CHOSE to identify as straight. That should explain their insecurity and constant attacks on gay people.
Exactly. I think the majority of the World are secretly/closeted bi (70%), then there are some gay (15%) and some straight (15%). I have no evidence to back this up, but then as most homophobia is based on bullshlt that has no evidence, why can’t I come up with some weird theory as well.
15% is way too much, though it’s nowhere near 1,5% which Tory goverment wants you to believe (i remember it was 6% under Labour which is more likely to be true). There was a study recently in New Zealand where 30% of respondends anonymously said they had same-sex attraction though only 3% identified as gay. Basically, all such studies show the numbers of same-sex attracted people are much higher than self-identified gay/bi people. And those are just people who are (at least partly) honest in their replies.
Yahoo attracts really stupid people. Don’t worry about it! You will get a random news article about something and in the comments someone will mentioned something off topic about “immigrants” and it scores hundreds of likes.
This is outrageous
Who even uses Yahoo anymore?
At least 300,000 people I guess…
What a choice, if they say yes, they associate themselves with being a bigot. How badly worded.
“Yahoo’s editors seem to believe that the causes of homosexuality are either genetic or a rational and knowing decision, a choice, made by a gay man or woman.”
The question is further incompetent is that it fails to invite respondents to distinguish between homosexual feelings and homosexual acts. The former are not a matter of choice but one does choose whether or not to live a life in which one acts on those feelings. Unless the distinction is expressly made in the question, many respondents are unlikely to appreciate it, and their “Yes” to the question may mean–what is true–that you have a choice whether to go out and find a gay partner.
Over cooking the issue doesn’t help, the main conclusion to the poll is whether homosexuality is a valid human sexuality or just a choice
Even if it were a choice, that wouldn’t mean it wasn’t a valid human sexuality.
What! There are ignorant people in the world. May I remind you that 50% of the us believes in creationism, this isn’t surprising.
Are people born religious or is it just a lifestyle choice?
Yahoo has been taken over by the anti-gay Christians and their hate groups who use computers to attack LGBT people every way they can on the internet.
These are religious idiots who inundated the poll. These people believe that “unless homosexuality IS a choice” their religion is wrong since they believe the Bible says it is a “sin” to be Gay. They are total idiots wrapped up in their obviously false beliefs..!
Maybe their next poll can be ‘Do blacks ask for it?’
Maybe Yahoo should ask if heterosexuality is a choice. I can just imagine the responses to that one. If homosexuality is a choice, I dare them to try it. Maybe Yahoo could set up a meeting with one of the straight respondents and a gay man or woman and see where that goes.
300,000 straight people say yes!Absurd!
When will people get it into their heads that Sexuality is NOT A CHOICE. Your born with it.
Even if it was a choice i would NOT CHANGE who i am. I was born GAY and if i werent then i would not be the person i am today. Im 200% glad i was born Gay.
Sexuality can also define traits and personality in a person, so it can be true that if your sexuality was different you might have been someone else.
Sorry folks not sure if making much sense. :(
LGBT Pride folks. :D
I’m gonna chip in for the “So what if it is a decision” position. I’ve always felt that as a bisexual, I could have chosen to be exclusively with female partners, and could have been pretty happy doing so.
There’s been an element of choice for me, and I suspect for many others. The real question is – is it anyone’s place to tell us our decision is wrong or unhealthy?
Being with partners of this or that gender is something you can choose. Having sexual feelings for them isn’t.
Only in America is a survey like this done.
Of course they will say it is a CHOICE. Don’t believe that it is genetic.
If society is to blame, so be it.
Some of the best evidence for a biological cause of male homosexuality relates not to genetic factors but to the effect of the womb environment on foetus development.
This constant reference to “genetic” is not helpful. “Biological” or “innate” would be much clearer.
I’m uncomfortable too with the ‘it’s not a choice’ argument when it becomes a stones-throw away from ‘Do you think I’d choose to be like this?’. If I had the ‘choice’ I’d happily choose to be gay. I don’t think it IS a choice but those defending it from that assertion should be careful not to give the impression that being gay is some kind of curse.
tomorrow they’ll ask if the higgs boson particle makes time travel feasible
Because 300,000 people ‘chose’ the way they are? C’mon how daft and hypocritical are these people?
What kind of people are Yahoo to even ask the question in the first place making the LGBT yet again a topic about who we happen to be.
It’s shameful and crass. We are not and should not be subject to this kind of debate.
Is heterosexuality a choice?
Pink News poll please.
Perhaps the reason people say ‘yes – it’s a choice’ is because THEY have made a choice to be straight. If that’s the case, maybe we are ALL gay. More likely, nature programmes us to enjoy sex and it is society which conditions us to fight our true desires. Maybe that’s why religion has such a downer on being gay. If they hadn’t stuck their oar in, everyone would have been free to be whatever they wanted to be. And a religion can only swell its numbers by denouncing any act which prevents procreation.
We are poll conscious to the point that they appear to be so absurd that to even have a legitimate rebuttal only adds more ignorance to the mix. In in any event have your readers discuss this with 300,000 people who know in their heart they are gay.
It’s is and isn’t a choice.
It’s programming from birth on a conscious, subconscious and unconscious (dream/nightmares) level.
I would wager that the poll was skewed as reactionary religious organisations urge their flock to vote that it is a choice. This brings memories of the Roman Catholic Church attempting to innacurately claim that 70% of the general public oppose gay marriage, and even the goose-stepping Mail later recognised 60% actually support marriage equality. Perhaps if Yahoo wanted to talk of morality, they can show their tax affairs too?