Over the years there have been many theories about why some of the world’s population has attractions to the same sex. Basically these theories fall into one of three possibilities: nature, nurture, or a combination of the two.

Nature means you were born queer – it’s your nature. There seems to be some evidence from scientific research to support this theory that homo- or bisexuality may be biologically determined, but even if that’s the case it shouldn’t affect your right to define yourself on your own terms.

Nurture refers to your life experience and how it has affected your development. In the past it was assumed that if you were queer, something damaging must have happened to make you that way. Now it’s widely accepted that this is not true. Our experiences – both positive and negative – may play a part in determining our romantic and sexual attractions, but no one is gay, lesbian, or bisexual solely because of a harmful or beneficial experience.

While some people have favored the nature theory and some the nurture, others have proposed that a combination of both the nature and the nurture are involved in determining sexual orientation. At this point no one is totally sure, though scientists are continuing to study these questions.

Interestingly, although there is quite a lot of talk about why queer people are queer, no one has done much research on why straight people are straight. The reason for this, of course, is that much of our society presumes that being heterosexual is “normal” and therefore needs no explanation, whereas being gay, lesbian, or bisexual is “abnormal” and so needs to be caused by something. In fact, homosexuality, bisexuality, and heterosexuality are all simply variations of human sexuality.

In the meantime, the question of why some people are lesbian, bisexual and gay is less important than the fact that we are lesbian, bisexual and gay. And that we – like all people – deserve to be treated with respect.