Finally some good news for BYU fans on RFM...

In an opinion editorial published late last night in the Salt Lake Tribune, William Bradshaw and David Weight, both emeritus professors at BYU, joined with Ted Packard, an educational psychologist at the U of U in staying categorically that "same sex attraction is "not a matter of choice."

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/opinion/51356807-82/orientation-sex-attraction-homosexuality.html.csp

>Upon reflection, heterosexuals will acknowledge that their own romantic attraction to the opposite sex was inborn and spontaneous, not a willful decision. It is inconceivable that fully committed Latter-day Saints (or those from any other faith tradition) would intentionally abandon their most deeply held spiritual aspirations and invite the disapproval and sometimes virulent animosity of their religious community and society at large by assuming a sexual identity that was not natural to them.

also from the article:

In addition, family members and other close associates will offer compelling testimony about the Herculean, but unsuccessful, efforts of their LGBT loved ones who have attempted, through force of will, professional therapeutic guidance or fervent supplication to deity, to change their sexual orientation.

No matter what the source, the assertion that a homosexual orientation is a choice is at once wrong, unkind and harmful.

Good for them to publicly state the truth! Now I hope they are prepared for the morg backlash.

I don't agree with his religious beliefs but think it's great that he is speaking out on the science showing that homosexuality is not a choice. Mormon Stories has a podcast of a lecture he gave at BYU laying out a pretty compelling case.

When I was at BYU and Bradshaw taught me organic evolution it was the first time I really considered that the theory could be accurate. It was perhaps the beginning of the end of my belief.

I found his insight very interesting

http://mormonstories.org/?p=1336

Perhaps he'll join us here at RFM soon. Wouldn't that be cool?

As the father of a gay son, I can tell you that sexual identity is not chosen. My son was in the closet (even from me) until he went away to college. Why hide it? There is so much persecution that being in the closet is a social survival tactic.

Mormons cry about how persecuted they are, and then delight in picking on another minority group. I'm old enough to remember when it was black people. Now it's gays. They'll have to give up this discrimination eventually. Then they'll pick on someone else. You just can't be superior without making someone inferior.

If you were straight, what would be the appeal of being gay?