Orientation and Choice : One Man's Sexual Journey

Beginning when David Robinson was 14 and continuing until he was 16, David was sexually excited looking at muscular, athletic boys. Was David gay? Is David gay? Did David have any choice about it? At 16 David decided to date girls. Why? It was 1969. In 1969 David did not want to be gay. He wanted to be straight. Today David is 66. In this lively, short (60 pages), true memoir, David looks back on his life, loves, times, and choices. He tells about high school (Longmeadow High School in Massachusetts, class of 1970), college (George Washington University, B.A. 1974), law school (Washington University in St. Louis, J.D. 1977), and adulthood. He eventually married a woman and is very happy with her. They have been a couple for 22 years. Heterosexuality was not always easy for David, but it's what he wanted. He tells how he satisfied, or tried to satisfy, his sexual urges by dating women and eventually marrying a woman. If a 16-year-old boy today (2019) is sexually excited looking at muscular, athletic boys but wishes, as David did, to be straight, some people will tell him, "You can't. You're gay. Sexual orientation isn't a choice. You're born that way. It's OK to be gay. Be who you are." Be who you are? The boy is 16. To "be who he is," he would have to decide who he is and who he wants to be. Can he be who he wants to be (straight), or must he continue to be what some people tell him he is (gay)? Some people say sexual orientation isn't a choice. If the boy wants a date, the boy must make a choice: date a male or female.