Herman Cain is an ignorant fool -- exhibit #2,722 (homosexuality)

By Michael J.W. Stickings

Appearing on The View, that bastion of intellectual firepower, high-flying Republican Herman Cain, going up as Rick Perry goes down, asserted, as anti-gay conservative bigots are wont to do, that being gay is a choice, the implication of course being that you can choose wisely or not and that if you choose to be gay you're a despicable pervert:

Joy Behar: To think that gay is a choice, I don't know how to respond to that. I mean, don't think anybody in this world wants to be gay considering all the vilification that is brought upon someone who is gay. Why would you choose that?

Cain: Well, you show me the science that it's not and I'll be persuaded. Right now it's my opinion against the opinions of others who feel differently. That's just a difference of opinions.

Behar's comment is pretty stupid. Not everyone who is gay faces such "vilification" (America has indeed come a long way) and I'm sure there are many gay people who find rather offensive the notion that no one would actually want to be gay.

But let's turn to Cain. This is similar to Perry saying the science on climate change isn't settled and that there is legitimate disagreement in the scientific community -- enough at least to justify his denialism.

The fact is, there is a lot of science on the nature of homosexuality, showing that it is not (and certainly not entirely) a matter of choice, and while questions remain, because science is not absolutist and is all about questioning even that which is more or less settled (and also because we just don't know everything about genetics and the interplay between genetics and environment (or nature and nurture, if you will), the science is actually quite settled on this matter.

As Zack Ford explains at ThinkProgress:

If Cain has not seen "the science," he clearly has never bothered to look. Based on decades of research, all major medical professional organizations agree that sexual orientation is not a choice and cannot be changed, from gay to straight or otherwise. The American Psychological Association, the world's largest association of psychological professionals, describes sexual orientation as "a complex interaction of environmental, cognitive and biological factors." There is considerable evidence to suggest that biology, "including genetic or inborn hormonal factors," plays a significant role in a person's sexuality.

Cain, ignorant fool that he is, probably doesn't care at all. He has his right-wing biases, his views on being gay (like his similarly ignorant views on Islam and Muslim-Americans), and that's enough for him.

Humble and inquisitive, a man of learning, he is not.