Originally posted by The Ellimist
Define "legitimate".
le·git·i·mate
adjective
ləˈjidəmət/
1.
conforming to the law or to rules.
"his claims to legitimate authority"
synonyms: legal, lawful, licit, legalized, authorized, permitted, permissible, allowable, allowed, admissible, sanctioned, approved, licensed, statutory, constitutional; More
verb
ləˈjidəmāt/
1.
make legitimate; justify or make lawful.
Originally posted by The Ellimist
Define "legitimate".
For example, simply saying "I want to be gay so I'm gay" isn't legitimate. it has to be scientifically based.
Likewise, having a mental illness that affects your mind, and then claiming you're gay (i.e. Beni), is also not legitimate.
But as we see in nature, some animals are gay naturally, and so for the individuals who are that case, it's legitimate.
You can't just pick what you want to be though - that's what I'm trying to say.
Originally posted by DarthAnt66
Cases where the body and mind *are* the way they are not because of mental illness, but rather just chance.
And what's the biological distinction between something being the way you are and something being a mental illness? I'm guessing malleability; the problem is that nobody has ever come up with a "therapy" for some of these sexual preferences that doesn't cause more harm than it's worth, and then we also beg the question of why we should bother with them at all, given that any harmful parts of them is typically socially constructed anyway.
Originally posted by The Ellimist
And what's the biological distinction between something being the way you are and something being a mental illness?
Seems pretty clear-cut to me. mmm