The question is simple:
Gay people of Reddit: if you had the opportunity to wake up tomorrow 100% straight, would you want to? Why or why not?
The answers, not so much…
Some people said they would prefer to be straight because life, in general, would be easier:
Probably. I haven’t entered a serious relationship and struggled a lot with my sexuality growing up in the Christian church.
I really think I would. I don’t fit in with the gays. I come off as straight, so all the feminine gay guys want me to pursue them. But my sexuality is submissive. I don’t want a feminine guy I want a masculine guy like me. But it’s surprisingly hard to find that in the gay community. I think I’d rather be straight. It’s just so much easier and simple.
I’m mostly out of the closet. It’s just that normal everyday conversations don’t leave opportunities to explain my sexuality to people without it being awkward. So a lot of people I know don’t know just because they haven’t asked. Plus I pretend to be straight in front of the guys on my hockey team because they’ve been very vocal about how much they hate gays.
Others weren’t as sure:
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Maybe if I had the option for an “undo” button. … I would go straight for a couple of weeks just so I could bang a few randos and stop feeling like I’m about to explode with frustration.
I have a lot of straight and lesbian friends. I’ve never really gotten along with gay men, and I’m not really connected to gay male culture. Really the only thing that would change is that I would like vagina. In that case, can I wake up as a lesbian woman?
Oooh. This is a tough one.
Yes because it would make life a whole lot easier. Like I’m dreading the day I come out to my parents, plus I’m still in high school so not exactly working in my benefit.
No, because the straights™ are basic.
So overall answer: No.
And others said they like being gay and wouldn’t change it for the world:
Nope. I mean, I just don’t see any reason for me to want to do that. Being straight is probably easier sometimes, but facing difficulties is very often a good thing. I’d probably have suffered less in the past, but suffering can engender empathy. I like those things.
No way. For all the shit that comes with it–having to hide it from certain people, having to be afraid for xyz reason–it’s part of who I am. And dealing with all the gross stuff has made me a stronger and better person. A lot of people died getting us this far as a minority. I’d feel like I was betraying that.
Absolutely not. Being gay is the core of who I am. It’s led me to some of the best experiences of my entire life. It’s opened my perspective, and helped me check my privilege. While I’ve been discriminated against, bullied, and even attacked for something I have no control over, I wouldn’t change a damn thing.
Now it’s your turn… If you could wake up tomorrow and be straight, would you? Share you thoughts in the comments below…
MMDD
Last quote nailed it for me.
mrbaze
YUP. Exactly.
Plus I love c*ck.
Chris
Depends on ROI; if I could wake up tomorrow, and in return for my being 100% straight Donald Trump would NOT have won the Presidential election; Bernie Sanders would have won it; PLUS the Senate would be Democratic…..well…..I guess that I could take one for the team.
As long as we’re going to go “what if?” go big, because it’s already ridiculous.
Herman75
Would I get to lick snatch?
Jack Meoff
If given the option I wouldn’t want to be straight just because it would make life easier. Like some of the comments in the article I also feel a bit disconnected from the gay scene but on the other hand I have had some awesome experiences in life that I wouldn’t of had if I were straight. I never wanted kids and am totally attracted to masculinity so I don’t know where that would leave me as a straight man.
Also, I look at my sister and her husbands life and think what’s so great about their life that I am missing out on.
ingyaom
Guy #1 – Better question: If you could wake up tomorrow and not be Christian, would you?
Prinny
I would
Mkiel
No,NO,NO Being Gay has given me wonderful experiences & I look @ my siblings lives, so very very boring.
Heywood Jablowme
Barf. Some things are just offensive.
Would Reddit run a quiz for black people asking, “If you could wake up tomorrow and be 100% white, would you?” After all, it’s just “easier” to be white, and by the logic of these gay self-hating losers, “easier” is what counts?
Barf again.
sanfranca1
@ingyaom: Bingo!
Alistair Wiseman
@ingyaom:
What a moronic question. Christianity is a choice and in a free country one can choose to be, or not to be, a part of any religion or none at all. Besides, I thought we were born gay and don’t have a choice.
Our whole society is based on Judeo-Christian Values which have a foundational role in America, beginning with Declaration of Independence.
Josh447
No way.
ChrisK
@Alistair Wiseman: God had no role in either Declaration of Independence and most the Constitution. Even though you can find religious terms like “the creator” in it the founding fathers were Deists and felt God had no role in Government. That went to the people as in “we the people”. The only bone you get is freedom of religion guaranteed. Not tyranny though.
Alistair Wiseman
@ChrisK:
Who do you think “the creator” [sic] is? By the way, “Creator” is capitalized as in meaning God (which is also capitalized).
There has been a concerted and successful attempt over the last generations to depict America as always having been a secular country and many of its Founders as deists, a term misleading defined as irreligious people who believed in an impersonal god.
Virtually all of the Founders were devout, orthodox Christians who consciously drew from their religious convictions to answer most political questions.
Perhaps you should go back and read the Declaration of Independence and look up the word ‘deist’.
DistingueTraces
Truly, no.
I’d far rather be on the margins and stigmatized than have my sexuality be the focus and tool of some of history’s most fucked up institutions.
Brian
The sex drives of straight- and gay-identifying men are identical. No difference there at all.
There is a huge difference in psychology, however. Straight-identifying men have to compete with other men for a limited pool of female sexual availability. It creates tension between these men. Aggression is not uncommon, especially in a sexual market-place environment.
Straight-identifying men tend also to share their sexual fantasies with each other. It creates a unique form of male bonding that is absent among gay-identifying men.
dgsea06
@Alistair Wiseman:
Chrisk- In those days, They Capilalized Nouns, just as the German language does today.
Sure, Creator and (no mention of) God. Magistrate, Empathy, Landowner, Lawnmower, etc. and ad nauseum. Read Stuff!
And, no, changing the way, um, “God” made me would be an affront to, um, “God”.
JerseyMike
A small part of me would like to str8.. The $ex with men, the travel, my friends and the parties? HELL NO TO BEING STR8. My brothers and other str8 men I know are boring as Fcuk.
CaliKyle
No, never. Even when I was an overgrown rage-filled teen who ended up suspended three times for fighting in hs because random cowards would mutter faggot under their breath as they walked past me, or before that in elementary school when all the boys stopped being friends with me because I had told one of them I loved him and wanted to marry him, or even later on in college after being heavily recruited for two different sports when I based my decision on the one I had experienced less homophobic bs instead of the one I actually preferred – at none of these points in my life or anytime in between did I wish I was a straight up hetero. Still don’t. Ive enjoyed myself with women but there is nothing hotter, more exciting, fulfilling and intimate than love and sex with another man.
dvlaries
For some reason this post made me think of the movie “Nebraska,” just recently watched.
*
Son Will Forte and father Bruce Dern are sitting in a bar, a break from their interstate road adventure to Lincoln where Dern thinks a cash award is waiting. And they hash up the past as they share beers.
*
“Did you ever think of leaving Mom?
“What for? I’d just end up with someone else who’d give me shit.”
*
So no. Why would I want to change sexual orientation only to find I’d have about the same success-to-failure ratio with women as men, but maybe with some accidentally incurred child support payments?
JJinAus
Heeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeellllllllllllllll!!!!!!!!! No. Why would I want to change who I am? 1. Being gay is not a disease. 2. I have had a FABULOUS life despite early difficulties. I have had such, such, such fun. Now in a very long term relationship, I cannot imagine any other sort of life. HELL NO!
o.codone
I would be 100% straight in a second. I was married to a woman and I have a daughter, so I know that lifestyle. It’s definitely easier. I’m not all that gay anyway. I hate gay politics and the insistence on liberalism. I’d join the other team, yeah, I would.
Hank
I dont think correct to change just to please the tyranny of heteronormative society and the nazi christians. Conservatives are disgusting, I know I’m on the true side.
Heywood Jablowme
@o.codone: Hey, we’d all be thrilled to have you “join the other team” and get you off our team. Please consider a vacation to Indiana for conversion therapy. I would be sorry for your 2nd wife though, & most likely all four or five of your wives.
Hussain-TheCanadian
@o.codone: What do you mean when you say “not that gay”? And what do you mean by “life style”?
Billysees
I’d be kinda scared waking up with with a new and unfamiliar sexuality. I wouldn’t know the ‘self’ I’ve known for many years. I guess I could get used to it and move on and be happy.
But being so accepting of my gay-being I’ve enjoyed all these years, I might want to go back and be happy once again with what I’m really contented and familiar with.
He BGB
It certainly would have made life easier if it happened when I was 10 or 11, during puberty finding my sexuality and realizing I was different and couldn’t tell anyone and being made fun of in middle school. But now, no. I like who I am and what I am. Also I avoided marrying a woman and having a bunch of kids. Ugh.
skilos
If when I wake up, i’m a teenager again, yes. But staying my current age, no. I’m too old to recreate myself.
chuck
HELL NO!
Paco
The question is offensive and suggests that there is something wrong with not being straight. I only feel pity for those that feel there is something wrong with themselves for not being straight. I think many of them would still be miserable if they could become straight, because it is likely that their issues run far deeper than not being accepted by certain straight people.
david_warner
Hell to the no! That’s like settling for boredom and mediocrity. Remember your first time in a gay bar … on a gay cruise … at a gay pride festival? Yeah … that’s the difference.
jheryn
When I was in my teens and twenties, I would have said, “YES! I would much rather be straight.” Acceptance was different then.
Now, “No thank you!”. I like who I am. If I were mature enough when I was younger, I probably would have said “No” too. I don’t know how to be different than I am. And why would I want to?
Sure life may be easier in one respect, but life is easier and harder in many respects concerning many things. Life isn’t totally easy for anyone. I don’t want to be different than I am. Who I am is just fine.
michel_banen
When I first realised I was gay I would have said “Yes”. But now, 20 years later I’m still in my first (!) gay relationship with my first (!) boyfriend and next year we’re celebrating our 20th anniversary. This is who I am and I wouldn’t change a single thing.
orcanyc
NO!!!
Music908
I’m 57.It’s silly to alter God’s plans for me ,now.If I die alone,then so be it.However,I have had 3 very interesting relationships in my lifetime .I wouldn’t trade any of them.I loved my first with all my heart,and it was my fault that we broke up,because I was trying to be straight for the church.Then,after many years I met and loved a fellow musician ,which would have continued if I hadn’t gotten ill because of my diabetes.Finally ,I had one last fling.Enough.
brandlover
@MMDD: Couldn’t agree more!
brandlover
Gay is the only sexuality I know and I really like being the way I am. I’ve really never understood the big deal about being what the majority calls “normal.” I can’t see myself with a woman/female. I like guys and I’m in a very happy relationship with another guy. I wound not want to change how I am or how he is or what we have together for the world.
roy_stimson
Its easy to answer the question… But the truth of the matter is would I change my waist or height or penis size? That is what you are asking… This is who I am, I am happy and proud of who I am. It has taken alot to get here! I am not changing who because I love me.
Kevan1
No I would not. I understand why some LGTBQ would rather be plane old straight. I would have said the same when I was younger. I felt like in my earlier years (Teens, twenties and before thirty five or six) I would have chosen to be straight only because I was still not comfortable in my own skin as a man yet, a gay man.
Once I realized God, did not make me as scapegoat for those of the “Moral Majority”, (Corrupt people who claim to be followers of Gods true word.) or the misled by parts of the Bible that had been changed or corrupted, God made me a gay man, as valuable as any other person, and better than those that judge my value based on one small facet of who I am as a human being. I realized I was made by God for a reason far beyond the small minded that judged me as an abomination as a pervert or a deviant in the end their thoughts mean nothing. I was able to understand I was made the way I was because that is how and what God wanted me to be. So.. I am proud of who I am and who I was meant to be.
Regardless of you religious belief or your disbelief of any higher being we are all meant to be who we are and we should be proud of ourselves as loving human beings. Never let a small minded or a self loathing person ever make you feel ashamed or less than for who you are meant to be, they are the ones that should feel ashamed of being less than a human being or lack there of as the case may be.
Cajaquarius
@Brian: So gay men don’t get to bond by telling stories about how they sexually assault and objectify women. What a big loss.
Nah, I would stick to being gay. It is core to who I am. Additionally, it is great having a true enemy like I have in the homophobic right winger. Hating them gives me energy. Fantasizing about destroying them or turning their children against them and then working to do that in the law and the culture gives me genuine happiness. Unadulterated hatred of ones enemies and being absolutely on the right side, free of guilt for that hatred, is almost addictive.
JessPH
Sure, life would be much easier being straight and not facing the hostilities of an ignorant, homophobic society everyday. However, do I really want to be a straight guy, marry a woman, have a bunch of kids and then turn into a couch potato, unsophisticated, beer-drinking, man cave-dwelling, lame joke-telling, dad bod-having creature? No.
Karlis
Good lord, no! God or nature made me gay, who am I to quarrel?
Daggerman
…from the point of view of society–being rather stupid due to religion that has made it appalling difficult for Gay people to survive. So NO I wouldn’t because I am not in the habit of allowing the straights getting me down..
Kevan1
@Kevan1: Sorry self spelling correction first line of sentence. I meant PLAIN not PLANE. Fell stupid
Kevan1
@Kevan1: Feel stupid DAMN IT! Not Fell stupid.
drsmithnj
No way. And with my experience it’s the other way around. Most men would prefer to be with men given that they have more in common, including the need and want for sex, with men than women. Women are simply vessels for procreation. Women themselves find sex with men a necessity rather than a desire.
FlyBy
Str8 – No. Bisexual – Yes.
tghost54
It really sounds tempting because I would love to have children.
It would also allow me to make friends easier I gravitate towards blue collar straight men for friendship.
I’m also conservative and I’m over the moon Trump was elected! ( how are those sour grapes everyone has been sucking on?) There are far better things to suck on.
The world is getting more tolerant, but the blue collar Marlboro men I find so appealing are a ruff nut to crack.
It’s not possible for this to happen to any of us, so why even debate about it?
We’re stuck with what the Gods have given us and we must make the most of it.
adamnfool
Absolutely not.
1) Self respect.
2) 3D vision/depth perception is achieved by looking at things from slightly different angles. I might have had no impetus to question if not for being different.
alxfyv
Absolutely Not.
The adventures and variety and number of sexual exploits are unique to the gay male experience and I wouldn’t have missed them for the stultifying sameness of the straight sexual scene. Even though this ultimately led me to the crisis of being HIV+, I still wouldn’t want to change the experience. Dealing with all the consequences and discrimination attending coming out and being JHIV+ was both a life experience and a challenge that made me a stronger and more nuanced man than I would otherwise have been. I could have done without the HIV+ experience but not at the cost of the stultifying sameness of the straight world.