Sexual Preferences

I’d like to know by what authority Andy Comiskey presumes to second-guess Cheryl Crane about her sexual orientation.

The woman was telling us her own truth about her life and how she understands it, and Comiskey used the opportunity to deliver a diatribe on his arguable and irrelevant view on the origins of homosexuality.

Millions of heterosexuals can talk about their repressed and/or abused upbringings and no one suggests that their sexual orientation is the major resulting problem. But a lesbian or gay man explores the dynamics of their relationships and personal development and terrified or ignorant armchair psychologists start talking about the “cause” of sexual orientation.

It reminds me of an old line that the reason no one talks about the cause of heterosexuality is that no one wants to stop it.

Whatever the origins of sexual orientation, they are far more complex than simple “environmental” or “innate” theories can encompass, and amateur speculation is quite useless.

The realities for gay and lesbian people are not tremendously difficult to comprehend: 1) we exist, 2) we did not choose our sexual orientation any more than heterosexual people have, and 3) an overwhelming majority of us don’t feel the need to blame our parents or anybody, as Comiskey apparently suggests.

By the way, I seem to remember Andy Comiskey as one of the “Desert Stream” officials recently profiled in the View section who minister to AIDS patients, often seeking death-bed renouncements of homosexuality.

If so, I suggest he take a more reflective look at who is engaging in self-protective rationale and inspiring myths about homosexuality.

DENNIS CABARET

Pasadena