- Question
- Are people born gay?
- Position‹4 of 4
- It doesn't matter if people are born gay
- Argument1 of 2›
We are better off not knowing
The answer to the question will only have negative repercussions for the LGBTQ+ community.
The argument
The argument is not about whether people are born gay but about what would follow if the question were settled, and it holds that both available answers lead somewhere harmful. Suppose scientists prove that people are born gay and can link the development of same-sex attraction to a specific gene. The finding would immediately become usable. If it proved to be a hereditary gene, and therefore detectable, homophobic parents carrying a foetus that has the gene could choose to terminate the pregnancy rather than give birth to an LGBTQ+ child. Whatever the researchers intended, the knowledge would hand a means of prevention to people who regard the outcome as something to be prevented, and the availability of that option would itself say something about how such lives are valued. This would only serve to further marginalize the LGBTQ+ community. The alternative finding carries a different cost. If it were instead a genetic mutation that causes same-sex attraction, the framing would reshape public understanding: the public would begin to view the LGBTQ+ community as victims of a disease. That vocabulary brings consequences of its own, since a condition understood as a defect invites pity, treatment and the search for a cure — and being cast as a patient is not the same thing as being accepted. Neither branch, then, produces positive outcomes for LGBTQ+ individuals. One supplies a tool to those who would rather such people were not born; the other supplies a language in which their existence is a medical problem to be managed. Because the two possibilities between them cover what the research could find, the question can be judged without being answered — and on this view it does not matter whether people are born gay, because we are better off not knowing.
Context
The impact of getting a definitive answer to this question will be catastrophic for the LGBTQ+ community. It is best to leave the question unanswered.
Premises
Counter-arguments
Understanding why people are gay could lead to improved attitudes towards LGBTQ+ citizens. It could also lead to further public scrutiny of those that hold homophobic views and an end to damaging gay conversion therapies. All of these would be good outcomes.
Rejecting the premises
[Rejecting P1] There are several important positive outcomes that could come from getting an answer to the question.