Nixon and Bindel are by no means the first to claim that lesbianism, in particular, can be a choice, though they are perhaps the highest-profile women in recent times to have drawn such intense ire by voicing this view. Aside from the controversy that Bindel has courted for years, back in 2012, Sex and the City star Cynthia Nixon received a similar response from LGBT activists when, in an interview with the New York Times, she explained that being gay was a choice for her. This fury at claims we “choose” our sexuality is nothing new. One reader comment on Pink News stated that “Julie Bindell’s suggestion that being gay is a choice is downright offensive to me!”
She received a vitriolic response from the gay community on social media, with comments calling her “stupid”, “confused”, and “an awful human being”. In her new book Straight Expectations, radical feminist writer and campaigner Julie Bindel has recently and very publicly claimed that she’s not convinced by the scientific argument that sexual orientation is innate, and that she feels she chose to be lesbian.
