Gender

An Eternal Characteristic
The first thing that comes to my mind when I think about gender is what The Family: A Proclamation to the World says: Gender is an essential characteristic of individual premortal, mortal, and eternal identity and purpose. The differences in gender are eternal, and when something is eternal, it is a truth. The divine attributes that each sex has are not merely a result of societal influences, but they reside much deeper within us.
Each Story is Different
When it comes to the hot topic of homosexuality, it seems that there are multiple stories that prove or disprove the claim that homosexuals are "born that way". I too have a story about a friend of mine. I met him in the 5th grade, and then we continued to be friends throughout middle school and high school. From a young age he was concerned about things that most males his age weren't: fashion, his handwriting, expressing himself creatively, and other "female typical traits". During middle school he was constantly told that he should be gay, even though he had crushes on girls. He was attracted to women; he told me this himself. We then entered into high school together, and the high school we attended was a preforming arts school, and known for more of its student population having homosexuals than other schools. It was our freshman year that he told me and his other friends and family that he was gay. Was it all just a self-fulfilling prophecy? Was it the pressure to be gay that caused him to feel that he had to be attracted to men? Did he lie to me that at one point he was attracted to women? I'll never know. I lost touch with him after high school. All I know is that you can't blanket statement why one person is homosexual or not. Each person is different and goes through different life experiences, even if they may show the same temperament or personality.