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Stephanie Ng
English 110
Professor Sipin
October 22, 2014
Choose To Be True to Yourself
Is being gay a choice? This controversial question was asked by Chris Thompson, a
YouTube blogger who found that this topic was one that needed to be addressed. Chris made by
a 19 year old gay male from Georgia, Daniel Pearce. In this a mother says that her son made the
choice and kicks her son out of the house in a hateful way. Instead of choosing to react in
anger, Chris decided to raise awareness of the struggle gay adolescents have with acceptance
from their friends and family.
Thompson decided to take the comment that the mother says in the video, You know
you wasnt born this way. You know you made that choice, and asked some of his LGBT
followers to respond to the question of choosing to be gay. Thompson makes this struggle
personal, by allowing the LGBT community to have a voice. He breaks down crying as he is
reading the response from a follower who does not want to be named in fear of ridicule. This
speaks to the audiences emotions that even a straight man can have empathy for the LGBT
community. This video has been released in a time where the issue of LGBTs rights are a hot
topic in American society. Awareness of increased adolescent suicides, marriage equality and
LGBT rights are topics that effect each individual in some way. No matter how different
someone is, they never deserve to be out casted and ridiculed. Thompson states in the beginning
of his video that this is a Human issue, no human should be treated the way this person was

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treated. Thompsons message is meant to raise awareness to adolescents and particularly to

those that might be feeling alone in this situation. Thompson states, Be better for yourself and
better as a community and educate as many people as you can. One reason there is not much
education about genetics playing a role in homosexuality is because it has not yet been
scientifically proven, there for creating a controversial issue that gives fear to those that do not
understand.
Genetics in homosexuality has not been fully funded, tested and answered, but is a
growing concern of many scientist and psychologists. Geneticist, Sven Bocklandt of the David
Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA states, "Sexual selection defines evolution and creation
such a major player in determining society and we have no idea how it works. This is much
larger than the gay gene; it's about all sexual reproduction." He also states, Whether or not
a gay gene, a set of gay genes, or some other biological mechanism is ever found, he has proven
conclusively that sexual orientation in men has a genetic cause. Parents may not know why their
child is gay, but do they not care about the psychological effect that they have on their children
when they no longer accept them in their family?
Psychologists have recently grown concerned of this issue because of the increase of gay
adolescents committing suicide. Approximately one million adolescents attempt suicide per
year (Gould et al., 2003). Every 90 minutes one adolescent commits suicide, making it the third
leading cause of death among ten- to 19-year-olds (Gould et al., 2003; Kaplan & Sadock, 2003).
Suicidal Individuals are unable to find solutions to problems and are unable to cope with the
immediate stressors involved with the situation. Therefore, a narrow view of the options
available to deal with recurrent family discord, rejection, or failure contributes to a decision to
commit suicide." (Gould et al., 2003; Kaplan & Sadock, 2003) Being a gay adolescent makes

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this even more pronounced because in many cases the coping resources such as friends and
family have been taken away. In a study involving 194 gay adolescents between the ages of 14
and 21, D'Augelli et al. (1998) reported that 26% of fathers, 10% of mothers, and 15% of
siblings rejected their gay children when they came out. Being gay is not the cause of suicide
increasing, it is the social stress of not having someone who will listen, accept, and give them
unconditional love.
This video was successful in bringing awareness of the way many gay adolescents are
being treated by their friends and families. This YouTube video received almost 1.6 million
views in the last month and over 200,000 comments. Whether the comments are positive or
negative, this video has people thinking and talking, and that is exactly what he intended it to do.
Whether people think being gay is by genes or by choice the proof does not matter.
Whats more important is that Americans love and accept people for who they are regardless of
their sexual orientation. Gay rights are continuing to grow one state at a time. Soon the LGBT
community will be able to be proud of who they are regardless of their sexuality (Thompson).

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Work Cited

Abrams, M. (2007). BORN GAY?. Discover, 2858.

D'Augelli, A., Hershberger, S., & Pilkington, N. (1998). Lesbian, gay, and bisexual youth and
their families; Disclosure of sexual orientation and its consequences. American Journal of
Orthopsychiatry, 68, 361-37.
Gould, S., Greenberg, T., & Velting, D., et al. (2003). Youth suicide risk and preventive
interventions: A review of the past 10 years. Journal of the American Academy of Child and
Adolescent Psychiatry, 42, 386-405.
Kitts, Li., Robert Gay Adolescents and suicide: Understanding the Adolescence Vol. 40, No.
159, (Fall 2005). Libra Publishers, Inc., 3089 Claremont Dr., PMB 383, San Diego, CA 92117
Nusbaum, M., & Hamilton, C. (2002). The proactive sexual health history. American Family
Physician, 66, 1705-1712.
Remafedi, G. (1999). Sexual orientation and youth suicide. Journal of the American Medical
Association, 282, 1291-1292.
Thompson, Chris (2014). Is being gay a choice? Online video clip. YouTube. Web Aug 28, 2014