"Born This Way"?

From what they (they as in scientists) have discovered so far, is that there are certain epi-marks (different from genes) in DNA that makes people more inclined to be gay/bi/etc. Gay men receive these marks from their mothers, lesbians receive these marks from their fathers (where bisexuals receive them? I think the jury is still out on that one).

However, they don't think it's purely genetic, but a combination of genes and environment (such as being exposed to certain hormones in the womb). Twin studies have shown that an identical twin who's gay, their sibling has a 50% likelihood of also being gay and 25% in the case of fraternal twins. So this is significant enough to show that it's something to do with genes, but not entirely (because the rates would be higher if it was purely genetic).

Personally, I don't feel like the "Born this way" narrative fits me. Mainly because it wasn't until I was out of high school that I discovered I was attracted to men. I had suspicions before then (never found myself attracted to women, had no desire to date/have sex/etc.) but I thought I was just asexual or had a really low sex drive or something. Maybe it was always there and puberty finally kicked it into gear, who knows? However, I have met people who've said they've known since they were just little kids, so it seems like maybe you are born that way, but it's not always readily apparent (late bloomers and what not).

As for how I feel for it being the slogan for the LGBT community? Meh, it's fine, because I do accept that I didn't choose this, but I think sometimes it kind of gives it a "they know not what they do" sort of feel to it, and that we deserve pity more than being treated as people with agency. Yes, we should accept it's something we don't have a say in (like being left handed) but not something to excuse our actions. We're not victims of our sexualities/identities, we just happen to be different in an ultimately unimportant way.

/r/lgbt Thread