Dionne Warwick on gay people: “… It’s the lifestyle you’ve chosen to live and that’s your choice”

[quote][bold]You say “preference” and “lifestyle,” and I know some people still use both of those words. But a lot of gay people think they were born this way, that it wasn’t a chosen lifestyle or a preference. Do you think a gay person could be born gay?[/bold]

[quote]Absolutely. It’s not only the way you’re born, it’s the lifestyle you’ve chosen to live and that’s your choice. I can’t define what it means or how it happens or why it happens or when it happens. It just is. I look at it that way.

Her reply makes no sense.

Oh calm down, it's not as if she referred to a linebacker in a wig as "sir".

She’s elderly. It doesn’t matter what she thinks. Her niece and her grand niece overdosed and drowned in hotel bath tubs. She has bigger issues than gay people.

Jennifer Hudson...

She's 80 years old. Your not gonna change the way she thinks and she's not saying anything against gay people. If OP is fishing to cancel Dionne Warwick, your many years too late.

This old bull dagger is playing dumb.

LEAVE DIONNE ALONE!!!

She was out there standing up for gay people before anyone else.

R1 I agree, but she's clearly made an effort to step away from hatred and fear. Whether she didn't quite understand the distinction being made or deliberately side-stepped it, I think she deserves a little slack. She's been an ally for a long time, that's good enough for me.

Why wouldn’t everyone choose to be gay?

Dionne is right. Some people are born gay and some people choose to be gay.

Is she save a little prayer for us?

r8 Agreed. And honestly, I was expecting something way worse before I read what she had actually said.

I’m not even a Warwick Stan, but basically It seems like she’s saying “gay people are born gay, and openly gay people live by choosing to accept their naturally-occurring orientation. As a straight person, I can’t pretend to understand all the complexities and nuance of the gay experience - the how’s and why’s etc., but it’s a part of the human condition. It just is a fact of life.”

Even the most PC hothouse flower would struggle to find anything offensive in that sentiment - thoughbi would put forward that it does seem like even generally supportive Black people of a certain age really struggle with a tin-eared approach to expressing themselves on anything to do with gay issues.

There is nothing offensive about the comment. She agrees that gays are born that way. One could argue what she means by adding chosen lifestyle to that. It could be that she means whether you live openly as gay man or stay in the closet. That's most definitely a choice.

[quote]but basically It seems like she’s saying “gay people are born gay, and openly gay people live by choosing to accept their naturally-occurring orientation. As a straight person, I can’t pretend to understand all the complexities and nuance of the gay experience - the how’s and why’s etc., but it’s a part of the human condition. It just is a fact of life.”

That’s how I read it, too. She’s just less verbose and/or articulate about it. She certainly doesn’t have anything against gay people. Her using her AIDS charity as a piggy bank is far, far more troubling to me.

If it weren't for gays, she'd still be looking like Patrick Ewing in drag...

I think she agrees that we are born this way and choose to live the lifestyle out in the open versus being closeted or sham marriages. It is refreshing to her seeing everything more open and honest.

Not seeing as how this is supposed to make her a villainess. She is 80 and witnessed the shift.

She gave perfectly fine response.

Maybe she is saying this.

Yes, you are born gay, but whether you live life as an out gay person is the choice. Remember this woman is a 100 years old. In her day, many, many gay men just chose to live their lives as straight men or did the whole confirmed bachelor thing. Those gay men, who lived their lives as gay men, especially back then, made a hard, but courageous choice. Talk to an 80 year old gay man and they will tell you what life was like.

And to some degree we all are making choices about our lives, even today. I could choose to marry some frau and knock her up and live a perfectly fine suburban life, but I chose to home on Monday night posting on DL.

Her response was fine.

There's a Dionne Warwick troll on Datalounge that even makes fun of her verbosity.

Saying you're born that way and you've also chosen it was an acknowledgement that gay people are born gay and not everyone chooses to be open about themselves and act on it except for those who do.

Even if she meant it in the outdated, less than PC way?

Bitch is 80. She's of her time.

I don't feel a need to cancel her over this.

I think gays are so hung up on the word “choice.”

You don’t choose where your heart leads you, but you do choose whether to follow it, so to that extent, yes, it’s a choice.

R3 Whitney was her cousin not her niece.

The woman who sang on that's what friends are for..the AIDS song?? I find it hard to believe.

Dionne’s been confused by her own choice to be a person of color... , she wasn’t born a dumb blonde... she’s struggled to achieve it.

Hussy!

[quote]She was out there standing up for gay people before anyone else.

No she was not. In fact she used up to line her own pockets during the AIDS crisis. Her "charity" as it turned out through investigation caught up with her on vacation in Brazil whereby she hid from the cameras after it was discovered 90% of the money donated went to her as salary and expenses. And I am not exaggerating the percentage.

Dionne: “That’s What Friends Are For 🎶”

Elton: “Yeah.”

[quote] Bitch is 80. She's of her time. I don't feel a need to cancel her over this.

Bitch was canceled by the gay community long before her golden diaper years.

She’s not worse than Cissy and you know it.

They say we choose our parents..

R26-I got your number

Fuck Y'all......Miss Dionne is a GODDESS.

[QUOTE] Your not gonna change the way she thinks and she's not saying anything against gay people. If OP is fishing to cancel Dionne Warwick, your many years too late.

I suppose you're also too late to do anything about your shitty, barely literate grasp of grammar and spelling.

I embedded assistance in my response, if you're smart enough to figure it out. Which is doubtful.

R32, call me

I agree with the sentiment that part of being gay, is a "lifestyle". There are many men having sex with men, that would never say they are gay. Being gay is a highly charged political label, that, once accepted, through coming out, becomes a "lifestyle".

Said lifestyle requires courage and strength. Many in the closet, especially in the not-too-distant past, could never muster. That is why being gay is one facet of a person that should be celebrated.

Gay is to homosexual what gender is to biological sex.

Not all men who sleep with men are gay. And some gay men sleep exclusively with women.

Just like not all women have vaginas, some women have penises.

Her nostrils are even more cavernous than mine!

Is that a lifestyle she has chosen?

Her sister molested Whitney. It's all a damn mess.

What Dionne is saying is just a obfuscation of the old “Love the sinner. Hate the sin.” line that Christians have been spouting for years. She’s admitting that that yes, you are be born gay. That however doesn’t mean for her you aren’t still sinning. Christians believe that just being a descendant of Adam is enough to damn you to Hell so being born gay isn’t contradictory to their belief. The fact that you are a practicing homosexual and don’t fight it and resist your natural, sinful nature is a a choice and one for which you will be condemned.

Dionne isn’t dumb and she knew and said exactly what she meant.

R40. I just want to understand your logical. So you are stating that Christians think people are born gay but choose to act on it. Your statement is inaccurate. Most chrisrians believe children are born with no sexuality but they become indoctrinated due to their environment. Miss Dionne opinion is hers and she does not speak for millions of Christians.

R41, read it again, I said that Christians believe that children are born into original sin, or the sin of Adam. I did add that being born gay, or in their eyes a sinner, isn’t contradictory to their belief, which it is not. Christians believe simply being born human means you are corrupt and the nature of human existence is to be sinful. This is why the immaculate conception of Mary is so important. She had to be born without sin so that she could then be the mother of Jesus.

Fuck that bitch! Did she choose to be born a female? Do straight people choose to be born heterosexual? NO, they don't. The only thing she chose was to end up a con artist old cunt.

That said, I've always assumed she was a lesbian.

Listen gays, I was high when this queen called me. I love you as you love me. Nothin more or less. That’s it.

I don’t care what she says. I’d still like to eat her black cunt.

Tomato tomahto. I think she’s tremendous. She’s a big bag of crazy like EVERYONE in show business and she brought attention to AIDS when it was in dire need to do so. And I fucking LOVE her music. I give her a pass on this 100%.

Oh, STFU you little SJWs.

I don’t see anything wrong with anything that she said. If you guys are gonna choose to take it up the poop chute then you’re just going to have to learn to live with comments you don’t like. Dionne is not standing next to your bed saying, “Take that big dick up your honey canal.” Not is Dionne looking over your shoulder while you are on Grinders saying, “Let that one come up your butt.”

Is she not a big lezzie? She sure looks like one, esp if she had a flannel shirt.

Technically, historically, etymologically, "Gay" is a political identity and political identities are choices.

Miss Warwick is correct. PLUS she also said people can ABSOLUTELY be born gay.

Other than breeders being repugnant I can't imagine why someone would choose to be gay.

As long as she doesnt try to make me over, she’s okay by me.

I completely disavow the misunderstanding of the simple statement that a lifestyle is a lifestyle.

It's not like I said that BEING GAY was a choice. But, baby, all the rest is a choice. Boas, big pecs, coloratura husbears, brunch, poppers, caftans, screeching and superb facial hair.

Isn't being fabulous a choice for you?

Unlike for me, where being a brilliant songstress and iconic divalicious entertainer of historical importance is as much what I am as your being gay (or whatever your choice of terminology is) is for you.

Of course I don't count the customized dee-signer sexualisms of unique personhoods the kids are inventing for themselves today. How could I?

Now quit bothering me and focus on how many young immigrant women are going to be disappearing in Vegas soon, with JanJack moving in. You don't think she lost those appetites she developed with that billionaire ex in the desert, do you. Maybe somebody will make a movie of it. At least Michael only sniffed 'em, instead of snuffing them.

And I am not re-sponsible for the loonies here who happen to be my fans. They can't help it. But they could buy my latest albums. Some fans they are.

[quote]In 1967, she also released “(Theme from) Valley of the Dolls” from the cult film of the same name after Judy Garland, originally set to sing the track, was fired.

Um...no.

What an old bag