The recent Gay and Lesbian Film Festival has generated a number of letters and articles from those who believe that homosexuality is immoral and others who challenge that belief.

Morality, I believe, is a fruitless avenue of debate on the issue because it implies that gays have chosen their particular “lifestyle.” More and more, scientific evidence is suggesting that homosexuality is genetic, which corroborates my own observations as a performer for fifteen years in musical theater in New York, an end point for many gays.

My (first) wife and I numbered many gay men as dear friends. We lived, worked and partied with them. Our bond was our talent and love of performing. No open-minded person could come away from these associations and declare that their homosexuality was a “lifestyle.” No, it was their essence. It seemed hard-wired into their systems.

Each knew from an early age that they were somehow different or strange, “unlike the rest,” or whatever label others attached to them. (To my pals and me on the streets of South Philly and New York in the ’50’s, such boys were “sissies.”) As kids, their demeanor was different from others, as were their interests, toys and friends. Further, they all felt the same unique personality characteristics whether from a big city, a farm in Nebraska or the deep south. Such startling similarities don’t suggest lifestyle, they suggest genetics. Granted, my “evidence” is anecdotal, but at least three hundred gays were part of my circle in those fifteen years, which is a fairly substantial sample.

What, then, would it mean “morally” if homosexuality is genetic, no different from being born with cerebral palsy or six toes, blue eyes or black hair, gifted with genius or athleticism, burdened with low intelligence, blessed with great beauty or disspirited by homeliness? Since Christianity rightly preaches that God created everyone from the slow to the swift, doesn’t it follow that we Christians must accept the homosexual in the same spirit? It becomes not a matter of morality, which is inherently and correctly judgmental, but rather a matter of faith in the very God who made them.

Genetics renders morality irrelevant. As God’s creatures, we are given what He gives us and logically one can’t be judgmental about biology. It is what it is. The real immorality occurs if we marginalize or discard those creatures born not to our liking or convenience, despite the biology. We don’t judge a child with Down Syndrome, for instance, so why would we with a homosexual!

Debating “lifestyles” also gets us nowhere. A lifestyle is consciously chosen. For a homosexual, this means that an otherwise intelligent, often very artistic and talented person deliberately selects a pattern of behavior guaranteed to bring him vilification, ridicule and contempt. Who in his right mind thinks that such a large segment of our population would actually invite this rebuke for their entire lives? Would YOU pick a way of life that promises such pain? It seems to me that human nature, our survival instinct, indeed, common sense, eliminates homosexuality as a deliberate choice.

The elephant in the room in any discussion of homosexuality, of course, is sex. Gay sex is clearly abhorrent to straights. But if genetics determines those desires, if God-given, randomly selected genes have made gays who they are, their sexual activity is part of the package. Not that we need to like it, condone it, or take a peek, but it goes with their territory and we should accept it. Otherwise it would be like accepting someone to whom God gave great strength, but expressing disapproval when he wants to lift something.

To be sure, some in our increasingly coarsened culture deliberately and consciously pursue sex with men and/or women as it pleases them. Others are truly confused or in denial about their own identities. There have even been articles about college students experimenting with bi-sexuality, as if it were a purchasable item selected off the moral shelf. And some women do consciously choose the love and affection of another woman because they think, rightly or wrongly, that only someone of the same gender can meet their emotional needs. These are not the people I’m talking about. For them, their lifestyle seems to be a deliberate choice. I’m talking about (mostly) men and women who are helpless to change what they were born with.

Also, I am not an apologist for everything gay. I would have concerns if my son’s scoutmaster were gay, I’m ambivalent about gays adopting children and I believe that a fully binding civil union, not marriage, is sufficient to insure for gays the same legal rights and benefits enjoyed by heterosexuals. But I would not actively protest such situations, nor threaten organizations with homosexuals in their midst.

Respectfully, I ask every concerned Christian to temporarily jettison the notion of morality to reflect upon what it would mean to them if homosexuality were genetic. What would it mean to their faith if God had deliberately chosen to create a category of human beings known as homosexuals? What becomes of their moral argument against homosexuality if it is genetic? This is how I believe the discussion should be framed. In any event, until the biology of gays is researched and understood fully, this issue will never be resolved to anyone’s satisfaction.