Sitting in a restaurant at the airport where you actually have to listen closely to even hear what you yourself are saying, I wonder how everyone is able to communicate with each other just fine. They have to lean closer, speak up a little or politely ask to repeat, but they all make an effort to get that communication going. If there are no open spaces, people are invited to sit with strangers and share the table.  The basic human social instinct to mingle and connect with each other, makes us make that little extra bit of effort to achieve a level of connectivity social that animals desire.

There are, however, certain people who are left socially and emotionally deaf on certain topics. One of those topics is homosexuality; and those certain people are commonly known as homophobes. As primitive as the idea is, it's a surprise that homophobes still exist in every corner of the world, even though they are, slowly but surely, reducing in number.

As the decision from the apex court in the United States that declared same sex matrimony legal in all 50 states came out, countless display pictures on Facebook went behind a rainbow filter within minutes in solidarity and support with this declaration of equality in sexuality. With that very encouraging and historical development for humanity in this age and time, a wave of hatred is also being felt across the world, coming especially from religious people in general and from Pakistan and Muslims in particular.

However small the resistance might be from Justice Scalia to the self proclaimed upholders of religion, it is real. Most of these objections are based on the religious prescription that homosexuality is haram and immoral and, hence, whoever supports it, talks about it or defends the decision must be an immoral person and an infidel.

Pakistani and Muslim homophobic community came armed with old and new slurs and the job description to declare all and any supporting equality as infidel. A public language based page, which I had liked for its “Urdu” memes, came out with a meme saying people with rainbow display pictures are supporting the nation of Lut.

The comments on that post are enough to make any one cringe out of disgust, and the replies to my comments alone were nothing but imposition of homophobic choice on others and their defensive and helpless efforts to prove how everyone is wrong except the ones quoting the Quran, with an intention and an attempt to revert me to Islam, along with spreading hate for homosexuals. The admins of the page later confirmed and admitted rather proudly that he/she is a homophobic and so is the page and if I am secular I must unlike the page and leave. My comments and their countless replies were later deleted by the admin. I asked whether I could quote anything from that discussion in my article, the admin denied my request, called it hate speech and deleted the whole discussion.

There is however, a small brave minority coming out of Muslim and Pakistani households who eventually put their profile pictures behind that rainbow filter after a little deliberation.

It has been a constant debate and a popular opinion amongst most people – ignorant ones if you want to be straightforward – that homosexuality is not natural or normal, an abomination and a choice. Fag is a popular slur used very loosely for gays in the countries including Pakistan and India.

While debating with the religious thugs on that Urdu medium page I was harassed and threatened with death more than once; automatic assumptions were made about my sexual orientation, I was branded an immodest and bad parent seeing that it would be OK for me if my child is born gay, declared as wajib ul qatl (must be killed) other ad hominem which will take the whole article, if I were to quote all of them.

Although evidence has been put forward over and over again proving that sexual orientation is not a choice but natural, I would still touch upon a few theories that have studied the reasons of such orientation in humans. As James Olson said, “We fear what we don’t understand. I’m looking for peace and an end to this war against gay people. The answer is education — if people understand what’s going on, then the fear disappears.” So with the hope to educate my fellow ignorant homophobesapien I try yet one more time.

Though before I do that, I do emphasize on the fact that the burden of proof is upon the claimant. If you claim that being homosexual is a choice and not natural then please go ahead and prove with authentic sources otherwise your word (rant) is as good as a broken record.

Now there is more than one sexual orientation prevailing in the animal kingdom. By the animal kingdom I mean all species of four- and two-legged animals. There are homosexuals, bisexuals, heterosexuals and asexuals.  There is also a new kind called sapiosexual. These are the people attracted to human mind or intelligence (not a sexual orientation, just for chuckles).

Different studies have proven that up to 1500 animal species engage in homosexual behavior. That defies the theory that animals only mate for procreation. These intimate acts range from simple bonding to sexual gratification. Which rebuts the claim that homosexuality is unnatural.

I have discussed the biological formation and evolution of the male and female gender in my previous article explaining how the two evolved the same way and conceived as a female until the Y chromosomes kicks in that develops the male genitalia resulting in a birth of a baby boy stuck with nipples. Similarly, studies have shown now and again that genetic mutation is a factor in determining sexual orientation in both males and females.

There are many different theories out there, and, though scientists are still researching on the concept further, one thing everyone agrees on is that homosexuality is NOT a choice.  For example, James Olson, a philosopher whose studies cover various subjects including brain perspective, in his book The Whole-Brain Path to Peace – for which he won four awards – discusses how brain dominance determines your sexual orientation.  Our two brain hemispheres are radically different in their vision and approach to problem solving. Both hemispheres contribute to our understanding of life, but one dominates. Most men are left-brain-dominant; most women are right-brain-dominant.  "If sexual attraction is a function of brain dominance," as Olson postulates, "it shows that the predisposition to homosexuality or heterosexuality is already present in one’s infancy, perhaps even at or before birth, because brain structures are already in place by then. In that case, homosexuality is not a lifestyle choice.”

In another research by the departments of psychiatry, psychology, human genetics and sociomedical sciences from different schools, in 2014 the researches concluded after a detailed study that genetics influence sexual orientation. Their “genome-wide scan demonstrates significant linkage for male sexual orientation” The study concluded that “results, especially in the context of past studies, support the existence of genes on pericentromeric chromosome 8 and chromosome Xq28 influencing development of male sexual orientation”

 “History of Psychiatry and Homosexuality” mentions many events related to homosexuality, and defines how it was looked upon as a crime against nature and a disorder. It was eventually declassified as such in 1973 when the American Psychiatric Association removed homosexuality from its official Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.

All the arguments against homosexuality – from it being unnatural, a sexual deviation and a cause of god’s anger – none talks about consent: what two people chose for themselves, and the imposition of each other’s ideas and love? While you are calling to stone and torture homosexuals to death even in the 21st century, there are civilized human beings rejoicing and upholding the very human right of each and every individual to choose a partner for themselves. People have gone past the idea of associating homosexuality with sodomy; it is rather an educated choice of equality.

So, I call upon all you proud homophobes to do yourselves a favor: explore and educate yourself because you will be surprised at how many of you like being with the people of your own sex. Besides when Sigmund Freud (based on the work by his associate Wilhelm Fliess) introduced the term bisexuality, he expounded that all humans are born bisexual but through psychological development (which includes both external and internal factors) most become monosexual, suspending the bisexuality in a latent state.

As Dorothy Parker said, “heterosexuality is not normal, it’s just most common.” In Simone de Beauvoir’s words, “in itself, homosexuality is as limiting as heterosexuality: the ideal should be to be capable of loving a woman or a man; either, a human being, without feeling fear, restraint, or obligation”. That's all that matters and that’s how it should be. Besides, everyone knows love ALWAYS wins.

Thank you Supreme Court, thank you equality and thank you humanity!