The Making Of Me

I watched "The Making Of Me: John Barrowman" last night on BBC1, and learned a few pithy truths. The first is that John Barrowman (yes, he of Dr. Who fame) has a really gorgeous husband called Scott Gill. The second is that when he is at home he speaks to his parents in a very broad Scottish accent - ironically, even broader than his own parents! The third is that I actually don't care why he is gay, or indeed why anyone is gay, nor do I think it should matter at all.

The premise of the show is a good one. John goes on a hunt around the world chasing various scientists to find out the theories being bandied about as to why anyone is gay. It is interesting that most of the people researching this are themselves gay, although once again I am saying this based on my admittedly defective gaydar. I really shouldn't be surprised though, because if you go to any of the GLADD (Gay and Lesbian Association of Doctors and Dentists) meetings here in London, you'll find the majority are psychiatrists, perhaps indicating an inclination to self-analysis?

Anyway, the happy ending is that there is no one reason why people are gay. Hooray. What I did find somewaht disconcerting was the way Mr. Barrowman kept trying to find his "ticket" into homosexuality; for some reason he needed some kind of biological justification for it. In the end he settled on the idea that the more older brothers you have, the higher your likelihood of being gay.

Good for him, but what worries me is that this seems to perpetuate the myth that it is okay to be gay because it is ingrained into you from the moment you are conceived. This may be reassuring to some people, and silence certain critics, in that biological ordination somehow trumps personal choice on the morality scale, but the reality is that it shouldn't matter whether one is gay because one is born that way, or one has chosen to be that way. Indeed, if it is a personal decision, then it is an entirely valid personal decision. Embrace it because you have chosen who you want to be!

The flip side of the argument is that if you can find a biological cause for being gay then you can somehow influence development of the foetus to prevent this from happening. First of all this smacks of eugenics, and being gay is not the same as being born with a fatal congenital disease. It is society which makes being gay less appealing, not some kind of internal biological time bomb.

Although there is undoubtedly some curiosity as to why some people are gay while others are not, I really don't think that anyone needs a "reason" to be gay. If you are gay then you are as beautiful as anyone else. There is no need to explain your existence.