I don’t know about you, but when I stick my head into the winds of American political discourse, not only do I get a nasty, ugly feeling, as if something I once loved has died unloved, I also feel like everything is receding. faster than forward. How is it that we have come this far in so many ways, and yet it seems like we are regressing to the point where the persecution of witches will be the next topic discussed by various factions of those who are supposed to serve the government? Take, for example, the issue of same-sex marriage that still occupies so much political ground when the biggest concerns should be about our deplorable financial collapse and the human greed that brought it about.

The central reasoning against same-sex marriage is, of course, expressed within religion, advocating that marriage is a ‘sacred institution’ between a man and a woman. I am not at all clear what modern American fundamentalists or conservative politicians mean by “sacred institution” since for most of human history up to the most recent times women, in general, have had very little to say about who is to be her husband and were generally treated as personal property. In many parts of the world this situation still exists. What could be sacred about slavery? No wonder most politicians, bishops, ministers, gospel preachers, popes, rabbis, mullahs, writers of Christian, Islamic, Hindu and Buddhist scriptures, and dictators were and are men, not to mention the gender of the most major religions. deity.

What is also never mentioned in these proclamations about the sanctity of marriage is that nearly fifty percent of marriages in the United States end in divorce; this percentage continues to rise. Furthermore, an equally large percentage of babies are born out of wedlock. Data from the National Center for Health Statistics showed that, in 2007, forty percent of babies born in the US were to single mothers.

The current arguments against same-sex marriage, the Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy, and gay rights in general stem less from religious institutions than from political perversity. It is certainly not the first time in history that this obfuscating game of tricksters has been played. While technologies change and cultures change, deception is and always has been pretty much the same. The extremely wealthy—individuals, corporations, and political institutions—pay politicians to pander to the public’s lack of knowledge and fan the fires of fear. A perfect smokescreen is raised, almost always under the guise of religion but devoid of fundamental ethics.

Homosexual issues are the perfect complement to this irredeemable power-hungry system because same-sex desire remains the least understood of human complexity. Although there is abundant scientific evidence supporting homosexuality as a natural expression, many people, especially religious conservatives, still believe that homosexuals choose to be homosexual; therefore they can change. Such are the beliefs and proclamations of the husband of one of the current candidates for the presidency of the United States and who, in fact, has made a business -reparative therapy- of turning gays into heterosexuals. Presumably it’s her belief as well. It’s amazing and terrifying that this kind of voodoo crap can be prevalent anywhere miles from even the slightest bit of intelligence, let alone at this level of political discourse.

The notion of choice is based on the Biblical historical belief that humans are the beneficiaries of ‘free will’ while non-humans are not, presumably because we have become too intelligent for our own good. There is abundant scientific evidence that supports the opposite; more than 1,500 species participate in various levels of homosexual activity.

It is convenient and politically more effective to turn everything black or white, and the mainstream media, with its own repressed filters, add to the confusion. There is no absolute ‘state’ when it comes to human sexuality and never has been. There is black and there is white. But there are countless grays in between.

If we believe that a gay person is homosexual by choice, should we believe that heterosexuals are also heterosexual by choice? If this is so, then all heterosexuals are just as capable of same-sex desire as are all homosexuals. Can be this? Unlikely. What is more likely is that a percentage of heterosexuals will never experience same-sex desire. On the opposite side of the spectrum are homosexuals who have absolutely no desire for the opposite sex. Between the two, there is a remarkable gradation from one to the other. Pansexuality is an indivisible fabric of greys, blacks and whites woven from genetic predisposition but immensely pressured by cultural weight. Human sexuality is complicated, complex and rich in diversity.

Millions of people get married, have children, and then decide to “come out,” choosing to express their natural state of same-sex desire. Coming out is a choice, divorce is a choice, cruelty is a choice, bigotry is a choice, greed is a choice, and bigotry is a choice. Same-sex desire is not a choice. It is a state of being. It is not right or wrong; it simply is. The less attention we pay to those who claim otherwise, the better off we will be. As the poet and filmmaker James Broughton once said: “Don’t contaminate the Divine with religion; it takes all the fresh air of Paradise.”