for your insight. Doesn't really matter who answers my questions. Just like being able to get everyones thoughts on it.
I can believe that some are born gay, but I still feel that the types of association, media and shows that portray gay life in a positive light plays a much larger role in whether a person becomes gay or not
It's a very common opinion, especially among Jehovah's Witnesses, as they do a good job of painting homosexuality as a choice, and a bad choice at that. The problem is that it's not based in fact, neither any reputable study nor on the experience of gay people. If you talk to many gay people they will tell you that they were aware of being different from an early age. They didn't know what being gay meant, just that they were different from other children of their same sex. I read an account of one young boy who watched Cinderella and realized he wanted to be with Prince charming, not Cinderella
These feeling become much stronger once they reach sexual maturity. It's quite a delima for a young Jehovah's Witness to realize that they are gay, something they have been told was something detestable to Jehovah. Some try to live a celibate life, knowing they cannot get married to someone they are not attracted too. Others get married in a futile attempt to be "normal", this does not work and two lives are ruined. Some of the accounts I have read are heart wrenching. No matter how much they pray and how much they do as a JW, they cannot be what they are not. Others leave and face the rejection of their parents and friends. It's not an easy road and one no person would do it on a whim.
Science debates what causes homosexuality, but what is known is that it is not caused by anything that is a conscious choice. It may be something that happens in utero as various things happen to a developing fetus, it may be genetic, it may be influenced a bit by early childhood, or some combination of all of that. As a heterosexual, what I know is that it isn't my place to judge who other adults have sex with. It's just a variation of human sexuality that isn't a problem except in the minds of religious conservatives.
I appreciate your being open to reading other points of view, I know how hard that is when you have been a Jehovah's Witness, you are been taught to see only one way of doing things, one way of thinking about things. Keep asking these questions, it can be confusing at first, but it does begin to make sense eventually, and it's much more rewarding when you know your values are truly your own and not something that is dictated to you.