Homosexuality as Race

I, as I do, am always thinking. One issue that I have been discussing with a lot of friends of mine is the idea of race and whether or not homosexuality can be defined as a race. How can homosexuality be a race when it spans so many other racial lines? People who do not think that homosexuals are not their own race believe that since we do not come from one common origin, then we are not a race.

This is the definition of race as per the Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary:

• a family, tribe, people, or nation belonging to the same stock a class or kind of people unified by shared interests, habits, or characteristics
• an actually or potentially interbreeding group within a species
• a taxonomic category (as a subspecies) representing such a group
• a category of humankind that shares certain distinctive physical trait

I would argue, considering the definition provided by Merriam-Webster, that homosexuality is indeed a race. We belong in the same stock, ie. we are all somehow related (our sexuality.) We also have similar characteristics, habits, physical traits and we are all undeniably inbreeding. The definition says that we are actually or potentially able to inbreed, which we do, we just cannot produce offspring (breed). We inbreed in that we have sex, but we just forgo the child part. Some would argue that since we can not produce offspring, then we can not "breed," but I would argue that in having sex we are choosing to have sex and share that connection with another person.

Sex, and the emotional and physical aspects of it, are much different than the ability to produce offspring. How about infertile couples? They are not physically able to produce offspring. Homosexuals are no different.

I am so incredibly proud to be a homosexual. I have so much pride in myself and in others that are also queer. I feel that, like any other minority or race, there are things that are just understood between homosexuals that straight people just do not understand. I would not describe these shared understandings as as explicit as inside jokes, but somewhere along those lines. But just as I am proud to be a part of my race, I do not put other races down. There is just something to be said about common understanding between members of the same race that the majority of people do not understand.

Please stay tuned for more stories of this average life.