Although I regard myself to be a gay man, I do find some women attractive. And, as Lisa Diamond suggests is often the case (25 July, p 18), the types of women and men to whom I am drawn have changed (a little) over my 68 years. You might call this “fluidity”.
I take issue, however, with the argument that this means we should ditch the “born this way” line. My father has reluctantly come to accept that theory. He says, however, that if I cannot be heterosexual, I should be celibate. If people like him are told that my sexuality is “fluid”, then I fear they would see it as proving that I could become heterosexual if I only tried hard enough.
“Born this way” may be simplistic, but I can see nuances in the “fluidity” argument being lost in societies that are determined to prove that homosexuals can be “converted”.
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